Tipperary GRA rep says proposed Garda roster changes were the final straw

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Tipperary’s GRA rep says the overwhelming vote of no confidence in Garda Commissioner Drew Harris was about much more that roster issues.

Rank and File Gardaí turned out in huge numbers for the secret ballot with almost 99% refusing to back the Commissioner.

Tipperary representative Richard Kennedy says the proposals to return to pre-Covid rosters is not feasible due to a lack of manpower.

However he told Fran Curry on Tipp Today earlier that this was just the final straw as there are a litany of other issues within the force.

“This isn’t a recent thing. We’ve our ongoing recruitment and retention policy which is causing manpower issues all over the country, we have members time overtaken by clerical tasks – we’ve basically turned into clerical officers rather than Gardaí. Welfare of members is not looked after in terms of CMO visits, lots of work related stress piling on day-on-day on members. The red tape and bureaucracy with oversight from various different groupings and then I suppose the straw that broke the camels back was the rosters issue.”