Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 June 2021
1147. Deputy Jackie Cahill asked the Minister for Justice if public sector employees are being transferred as staff members to An Garda Síochána without agreement; if they will be transferred without the same employment terms and conditions that they had in the public sector; if they will be balloted to determine if they accept or approve of this staff transfer; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31461/21]
View answerAs the Deputy will be aware, in April of this year the Government approved the drafting of the Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill, a commitment in the Programme for Government. This General Scheme was developed on the basis of the recommendations of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland (CoFPI) following its fundamental in-depth review in 2017-2018.
A central tenet of the CoFPI report is that An Garda Síochána should be seen and treated as a single organisation with a single workforce. To support this CoFPI recommended that non-sworn members (i.e. Garda staff) should be recruited directly to An Garda Síochána, not to the general civil service, and should be treated as valued members of a single Garda workforce with a shared mission.
The General Scheme gives effect to this recommendation by providing for the Garda Commissioner to recruit and appoint Garda staff in accordance with the Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Act 2004. Under the Scheme, the Minister may also designate by order that existing civil servants within An Garda Síochána will change status, but only after engagement with trade unions and staff associations.
It is important to emphasise that no changes to the status of existing Garda staff will take place solely as a result of the enactment of the proposed legislation. An order of the Minister will be required before any designation changing the civil servant status of existing Garda staff may be made. The Minister must engage with any trade union or staff association concerned and consider any representations made by them. The General Scheme provides further reassurances with regard to the terms and conditions of existing Garda staff prior to any agreement being reached with relevant unions or associations.
I understand that officials from my Department have been in contact with the relevant representative associations to brief them on the legislation and remains available to engage further with them.
