Garda crisis should not have got to brink of strike – Gerry Adams accuses Government

THE DEFERRAL of industrial action by gardaí on Friday has been welcomed by Gerry Adams but the Sinn Féin leader was very critical of the Fine Gael/Independent Government, saying the crisis should not have come to the brink of a strike by the police.

Noting that it is now up to members of the Association of Garda Sergeants & Inspectors and the Garda Representative Association to decide on if the deal offered at the eleventh hour by the Government is sufficient, Gerry Adams said:

“It should never have gotten to the point of the state being left without a policing service.

“We have all known of the prospect of such a crisis for months but the Government failed to actively seek an early resolution.

“It should never have allowed the summer to pass without any real effort to engage in dialogue with the Garda representative bodies.

“Whatever the outcome of this current process, the Government needs to learn from its mistakes in handling pay disputes.”

He said that Enda Kenny’s government should now move speedily to the production of the necessary legislation to provide the gardaí with access to the Workplace Relations Commission and the Labour Court.

The Sinn Féin leader emphasised that Fine Gael also needs to address the other challenges posed by legitimate pay claims by public servants, including teachers and nurses, “the vast majority of whom want and deserve the fair and timely unwinding of FEMPI cuts and pay restoration”, he said.

“That means unequivocally committing to the principle of equal pay for equal work, and that means committing to entering into discussions to achieve a new public sector pay agreement more quickly than September 2018.”