‘Outrageous’ reports of Garda training cuts to pay for Trump visit

The Garda Representative Association (GRA) has expressed alarm at reports that training and ICT budgets will be cut to pay for last month’s visit of President Donald Trump, following an internal Garda report showing failings in the management of DNA testing.
Any suggestions that the up to €12M bill for policing Trump’s visit last month will be footed by cuts to Garda training has been described this week by the GRA Representative for Cavan Monaghan, James Morrisroe, as “outrageous”.
He also pointed out that this was not “an official State visit” and, as such, the cost should not “interfere with any budgets within An Garda Síochána” especially in the area of training.
Garda Morrisroe told The Anglo-Celt this week that “lack of training on a number of fronts is an issue we have highlighted for a long time in the GRA”.
While lots of training material is being placed on the Garda portal, Gda Morrisroe said this is insufficient. “It has to be augmented with classroom training. There is no substitute for classroom-based training,” he said.
The Cootehill based member also said that in-service training is “sorely lacking”, as found in a review by the Garda Professional Standards Unit (GPSU), the force’s own internal watchdog.
“That shows the lack of joined-up thinking and lack of training for front-line members,” said Gda Morrisroe.
The unit identified a number of issues in how the National Forensic Coordination Office (NFCO) manages and monitors the recording of DNA material. It found current staffing levels within the section are inadequate and that a quarter of gardaí are taking DNA samples without being properly trained.
“They introduce legislation and protocols and then don’t properly train gardaí. It does not make sense at all and it is not value for money from the public purse either. If you are putting in legislation and powers for gardaí and then not training the gardaí to implement those powers, it is not good spending of public money,” said Garda Morrisroe.
If perpetrators of crime are not being detected or prosecuted due to the inadequate management of the DNA testing, Garda Morrisroe says “it will not be any fault of the hard-working, front-line gardaí. The cause will be that the organisation did not train the gardaí”.
The GRA general secretary, Pat Ennis, has also weighed in on the issue this week. “DNA profiling is one of the most powerful techniques in the identification of offenders and missing persons. It is an essential tool in crime investigation,” he said.
“This should be a wake-up call for government that it needs to put money into training and ICT not cut it. The visit of President Trump will have to be paid for from some other source - not the Garda Siochana’s budget,” concluded Mr Ennis.