Prospect of overtime refusal raises doubts about garda plan to handle Budget Day protests at Dáil

Large protests are expected and an operation involving 200 gardaí is being put in place following more than a dozen arrests during demonstrations outside Leinster House last month when the Dáil returned.

However, the public order units would be operating on overtime, and their deployment may be in doubt after the association representing rank-and-file gardaí voted to refuse voluntary overtime on the five Tuesdays in October, including Budget Day and Halloween.

Garda management, meanwhile, has reassured the Policing Authority and Justice Minister Helen McEntee that adequate resources will be in place on those days.

The Garda Representative Association (GRA) passed the overtime ban as part of its ongoing roster dispute with Garda Commissioner Drew Harris.

Mr Harris has invited the GRA to negotiations, which the union says will happen only if the deadline to return to a pre-pandemic roster in November is deferred.

A full public order deployment made up of six vans is currently scheduled for Budget Day, including more than 20 gardaí from the Dublin Region and a similar allocation from the Eastern Region.

Sources said the units would operate in a low-profile ‘soft cap’ capacity and would be deployed only if the protests escalated.

“If the situation doesn’t improve, it will be highly unlikely that this full deployment will take place because of the GRA’s decision not to commit to voluntary overtime,” one source said.

It is understood one possible move, if gardaí refuse overtime, would be to deploy working units from the Dublin Region and outside of the capital into the city centre that day.

“This could potentially leave other areas of Dublin and further afield under-resourced,” another source said.

On September 20, gardaí arrested 13 people when several politicians were confronted by up to 200 protesters.

Politicians, staff and journalists were also effectively blockaded in Leinster House for several hours, with Tánaiste Micheál Martin describing some of the conduct of demonstrators as “fascist-like behaviour”.

As a result of the protests, gardaí have a revised plan for Budget Day and other future protests, but a so-called ‘sterile zone’ around the Dáil is unlikely.

Mr Harris last week told the Policing Authority that some people at the protests they have policed “engender a situation of confrontation and abuse”, a lot of which is directed at gardaí but also the wider public.

Ceann Comhairle Seán Ó Fearghaíl said of the threatened withdrawal of gardaí next week: “There is no prospect of any hiring of private security.

“We are in touch with the Garda Commissioner and his senior personnel, and the expectation is that the gardaí will be able to stay ahead of the situation and to provide us with cover.

“In the highly unlikely event that gardaí will be unavailable, we would be looking to the Defence Forces to come to our assistance. But it is expected that there will be gardaí at Leinster House for Budget Day in the normal way.”

Ms McEntee yesterday said she had been reassured by Garda management that there would be relevant numbers to work on the days of the overtime withdrawal.

“There is a long time between now and November 6 and 10,” she said, referring to the GRA’s plans to withdraw all frontline services on the latter date if the roster dispute is not resolved.

“What I would ask people to do, and I have said this time and time again, is the only way to resolve this is by intensifying negotiations and discussions.”