Peadar Tóibín
Question:1110. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Justice the number of gardaí who have taken stress leave in each of the past five years, in tabular form. [1516/24]
View answerWednesday, 17 January 2024
Questions (1110)
Written answers
I can assure the Deputy that An Garda Síochána is committed to protecting the health, safety and welfare of all Garda members and Garda staff. This commitment is reflected in the €6 million allocated for Garda wellbeing initiatives, additional medical costs and over 2,500 units of body armour in Budget 2024.
I also want to make it clear that I am very aware of how stressful and difficult the work of members of An Garda Síochána can be. There are a number of support systems in place to help Gardaí address issues of stress and mental health, including the Employee Assistance Service, trauma counselling, Psychological Support Programme, as well as peer support.
In recent years, An Garda Síochána launched 'Keeping Our People Supported', the Health and Wellbeing Strategy Statement and Action Plan 2021-2023. This plan identified three key goals to improve the health and welfare of Gardaí.
These goals were to identify, communicate and enhance existing resources to promote health, wellbeing and work ability across the organisation, to develop partnerships with key stakeholders inside and outside the organisation in order to build capacity, and to provide support and advice.
A new wellbeing app KOPS ("Keeping Our People Supported") was launched as part of the strategy. The app makes support available to members of An Garda Síochána on a 24/7 basis and can be accessed on any mobile device. It was created to ensure members who may be distressed and in need of urgent assistance can access the supports available to them at any time.
I am advised by the Garda authorities that there is no specific sub-category on the Sickness Absence Management System (SAMS) for the recording of absences due to stress, anxiety or depression but in some cases, this is recorded under the Mental Health sub-category or in the comments field against another sub-category.
The following statistics have been compiled using the Mental Health illness subcategory. There is no guarantee that all absences due to stress, anxiety or depression have been recorded under this sub-category.
Number of members recorded as taking sickness absence due to mental health illness
|
2023 |
39 |
|
2022 |
50 |
|
2021 |
47 |
|
2020 |
51 |
|
2019 |
54 |
Please note that the figures are operational and may be subject to change.
I am also advised that the figures for 2019 – 2022 are acquired from the Annual Commissioner Reports and are correct at the time each yearly report is run.