asked the Minister for Justice whether he is aware that injustice is being done to members of the Garda Síochána who hold Class 1 (a) literary qualifications and who were promoted to the rank of sergeant under the 1924 regulations, and subsequently reduced in rank due to the requirement that they must undergo a further professional examination before being eligible for promotion under the 1925 regulations, while members of the force who hold only Class 3 (a) literary qualifications and who were promoted under the 1925 regulations are, if they were subsequently reduced, eligible for promotion to the rank of sergeant without further professional examination; and, if so, whether he will arrange to have the regulations amended so as to remove this discrimination.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Garda Promotions.
I do not intend to amend these regulations.
The Garda Síochána Promotion Regulations 1925 to 1947 provide that, in the ordinary way, a guard will not be eligible for promotion to the rank of sergeant, unless he has passed, or is exempted by the regulations from passing prescribed examinations (a) in educational subjects and (b) in police duties, the examinations in question being referred to as Class III promotion examinations. The regulations exempt from the examination in educational subjects a guard who passed the Dublin Metropolitan Police Class III examination in educational subjects, or who passed or was deemed to have passed the "P" examination under the Garda Síochána Promotion Regulation of 1924. They also exempt from the examination in police duties any guard who passed the examination in police duties and drill for promotion to the rank of sergeant in the Dublin Metropolitan Police. They do not give a similar exemption to a guard who passed a Garda Síochána promotion examination in police duties prior to the date of the making of the 1925 regulations for the reason that the standard of those examinations is not considered to have been sufficiently high. The regulations provide that a proportion not exceeding 25 per cent. of vacancies in the rank of sergeant may be filled by promotion of guards who have shown special zeal and ability in the performance of their duties, notwithstanding that they may not have passed the Class III promotion examinations.
Many of the members of the Garda who were promoted to the rank of sergeant prior to the making of the 1925 promotion regulations did not pass any examination in police duties prior to promotion, and those who did, passed an examination of a lower standard than the present Class III examination. Accordingly, where such members have, for disciplinary reasons, been reduced to the rank of guard, I do not consider that there is any ground for making them eligible for reinstatement in the rank of sergeant, without passing the Class III examination in police duties, no matter what their literary qualifications may be.