Vol. 105 No. 3
I move:—
That a sum not exceeding £1,891,320 be granted to complete the sum necessary to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending the 31st day of March, 1948, for the salaries and expenses of the Garda Síochána (No. 7 of 1925, No. 10 of 1926, No. 5 of 1937, No. 19 of 1941, Nos. 1 and 17 of 1945) and for payments of compensation and other expenses arising out of service in the Local Security Force (No. 19 of 1946).
Before you put the Vote, I would like to deal with just a few points in relation to the Taca Síochána which I did not make clear yesterday.
If there are any small points, the Deputy is entitled to raise them.
I appreciate that the Taca Síochána were in receipt of a higher pay than the ordinary Guard at entrance. The Taca was recruited in September, 1939, and after training they were sent out to Dublin. In February, 1940, they went mostly to the Metropolitan Division. They were in a temporary capacity and on probation for a period of 12 months, and they eventually were attested into the force in 1942. I said yesterday that most of those men were of splendid physique and nearly all of a high standard of secondary school education. To my mind, they are the cream of the force at present. They were certainly above any recruits I had experience of in my time in the Gardaí and they are certainly performing their duties in a zealous and very efficient manner. As a result of the new Order, the members of the Taca are virtually losing two and a half years' service.
In the way of increment?
Yes. They are not getting the benefit of that service. I understand that former members of the Army who rejoined the Army got the benefit of their former service and members of the Army who joined the prison service got the benefit of Army service towards prison service for pension purposes. I think there is an anomaly there in the treatment of those men, which I want to emphasise and bring to the Minister's notice, in the hope that he may be able to relieve it. Take a man of 27 years who attested in 1942 and a Taca who came in in 1939 and you will find that the man who came in 1942 is getting something like 9/6 per week more than the Taca who had actually longer service. That is creating a certain amount of discontent and ill-feeling in the force.
There is another problem which arises by reason of the fact that their service is not regarded as continuous. Men who are eligible in the ordinary way for promotion, eligible in every way as regards education and professional attainments, may be promoted if they have five years' service, but Taca men are not regarded as eligible for promotion. Recently I understand that members of the Taca who applied for promotion were rejected, whereas men with similar service in the uniform force were allowed to compete in the examinations. These are anomalies affecting this small body of men which ought to be removed. I mention these matters as I did not give them fully yesterday, and I think they are deserving of the Minister's consideration. I would ask him to look into these points and, if at all possible, try to meet the grievances of these men and settle, once and for all, the grievances they are under and the discontent that is there. It causes friction, as I said yesterday, in individual stations, and I suggest there is a case there that wants looking into.
I raised a question yesterday as to the wisdom of retaining the existing Garda regulation which prevents a member of the Garda Síochána being stationed within 30 miles of his own place. I do not know whether the Minister had an opportunity of replying to that.
I did not reply to that.
If the Minister is familiar with the facts of the case, I am quite satisfied with a promise that he will look into the matter sympathetically and he might be in a position to modify the regulation in the light of the experience of the past 25 years.
I shall draw the Commissioner's attention to it.
I do not want that; that is a very perfunctory way of doing it. I want the Minister to examine the matter and to realise that the regulation has no real wisdom behind it in existing circumstances. It was framed for the purpose of dealing with a new and untried force, but there is no reason to look on the force now with the suspicion which, I think, was the inspiration behind that regulation originally. Fortified by his experience over the years, I feel sure that if he examines the matter sympathetically he will come to the conclusion that the regulation can well be modified. Then he could make representations to the Commissioner. Will the Minister be prepared to do that?
There is a good reason for that regulation. The point is whether 30 miles is reasonable or otherwise. That is another matter. There is more than one point of view to be considered in relation to this. It is important that the Guard should not be too near his native place or the place from which his wife's people come. I think that is admitted. Whether 30 miles is too far a distance, I am not quite sure. I know that the Commissioner endeavours to arrange that the Guards will be in direct communication, by way of bus or other forms of transport, with their native areas. He arranges that as best he can. But there is a good reason for the regulation, speaking generally. However, I shall look into the matter and see if the regulation can be modified. All sorts of representations have been made, covering every point of view. We may be told that Guard So-and-So married into a family in a certain district and he is prejudiced against this or that person. For the Guard's own sake it is desirable that he should not be in the immediate neighbourhood of his own or his wife's family.
There is one case of a Guard who, because his daughter was employed in a local shop, was told he would have to go.
Cases like that could be inquired into and I will ask the Commissioner to deal with them. But there is a good reason for the regulation. You will find there are more requests to have that done than there are complaints that it has been done. That is the information that I have, anyway. Whether it is true or not, you will find people saying that the Guards are prejudiced against them because of his wife's people or his own people.
How did the British maintain a police force here?
I think they had that regulation, too.
I do not think they had.
They had that regulation.
I think it is a very sensible one.
