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Evidence concealed by local authority management shows that plans to roll out staffless libraries in 23 locations across Ireland could undermine child protection protocols and put young people at risk. Last week, IMPACT’s local government conference heard that the Local Government Management Association (LGMA), which represents local authority management, had concealed six incidents of children being left unsupervised in staffless libraries during a pilot carried out in Offaly. The incidents were later reported under Freedom of Information legislation.

IMPACT delegates backed motions opposing staffless libraries on the grounds that the move left library staff unable to meet their child protection responsibilities, as outlined in guidance from the Department of Children and Youth Affairs.

Seamus Ryan of IMPACT’s Clare branch outlined a range of child protection and health and safety risks linked to public buildings that remain open to the public without staff in place.

“There were six reported incidents of children being left unsupervised in libraries when this reckless programme was piloted. The lurch to staffless libraries is cuts-driven, overlooks the many risks involved, and undermines our commitments and responsibilities under child protection legislation. If a child or young person enters a library during a staffless opening period, there is an automatic, immediate and unacceptable level of risk,” he said.

IMPACT national secretary Peter Nolan said there is also a fire safety risk with staffless libraries as there is nobody to conduct an evacuation as currently exists in all public premises.

IMPACT has criticised a management report on the pilots for failing to include details of anti-social behaviour in staffless libraries. Details released under Freedom of Information legislation last year revealed that 111 library users in Offaly had their library membership temporarily withdrawn because of transgressions including ‘tailgating,’ or passing entry cards to unauthorised people who could then access the library. One person had their library card permanently withdrawn for being drunk, while six incidents of unsupervised children were also reported.

The union’s Cork branch said omissions in the LGMA report into the ‘Open Library’ pilots totally undermined its positive conclusions. It said any decision to continue with the scheme, which was based on the report, would be ‘ill advised’.

In his opening address to the conference Sean Reid, Cathaoirleach of IMPACT’s Local Government division, outlines broader fears about the impact of the project on library services.

“So-called pilot schemes are the thin end of a nasty wedge, which will lead to job losses and far poorer library services. An unchecked drift to staffless libraries will, at best, fragment the service. Services in small towns and rural areas will be downgraded and mostly unstaffed, with little or no access to specialist advice, educational courses or cultural events, while poorer urban areas will be denied both extended opening hours and enhanced services based on modern information and communications technologies,” he said.

Mr Reid said that staffless libraries would also remove services that only staff could provide, including school visits and storytelling events. “No help to find what you want. No safe and secure space to flick through a magazine or surf the web. And none of the hundreds of educational and artistic events that libraries provide throughout the year,” he said.

The Labour Court has backed IMPACT’s interpretation of a Court recommendation, which effectively blocks Roscommon County Council management from making sweeping cuts to staff flexitime provisions.

Management triggered industrial action in the county on Tuesday by unilaterally cutting the amount of flexi-leave staff could accrue, on the basis of its mistaken interpretation of a clarification they received from the Court. Now the Court has written to the parties to say that its ruling did not sanction cuts in flexi-leave accrual.

The development came as representatives of IMPACT’s Roscommon branch attended the union’s local government conference in Donegal, where they heard expert Camille Loftus criticise local authorities’ “lamentable record” in implementing flexitime and other family friendly policies.

Flexitime mostly helps low paid women workers with childcare commitments by allowing them work up time, which that can later be taken as leave or flexible working.

But council management has gutted scheme by cutting the number of available days from 13 to two, reducing the amount of worked-up time that can be carried over from month to month, and taking control of the scheme away from line managers who understand local service needs.

The Labour Court has now contradicted management’s interpretation of its recommendation by saying that it had only ruled on opening times and a flexitime bandwidth – not on the issues of accruing flexitime or taking flexi-leave, which are in dispute.

Over 150 staff are taking limited industrial action in a bid to win back their rights, which generate no net cost to taxpayers or service users.

IMPACT official Padraig Mulligan told the conference that the action could be called off if management returned to the status quo pending talks, but warned that things could escalate if management refused to engage in talks, as has been recommended by the Workplace Relations Commission.

“Management has taken the ‘flexi’ out of flexitime, and relegated Roscommon to the lowest league of family-friendly services. This scheme has been in place for 17 year and staff have built their lives, and those of their families, around it. This is an attack on working parents that will not be tolerated by IMPACT or its members.

“Progressive councils know that good flexitime systems cost nothing and improve services through higher productivity, better staff morale, and fewer sick days. It also works for staff, especially low-paid women with high childcare costs. Staff and their union, IMPACT, will continue to resist Roscommon’s Neanderthal mismanagement, and the latest Labour Court clarification is a boost to our campaign,” he said.

IMPACT has welcomed a Government commitment to report the results of the gender pay gap surveys it intends to introduce for companies with 50 or more employees. The union says the pledge, which is set out in the new National Strategy for Women and Girls 2017-2020 published earlier this month, goes significantly further than the Programme for Government commitment to simply require firms to conduct wage surveys.

IMPACT, which has been campaigning for legislation to compel large and medium employers to publish details of their organisations’ gender pay gaps, also welcomed the strategy’s commitment to initiate dialogue between unions and employers in order to address the gender pay gap.

IMPACT spokesperson Lughan Deane said the Programme for Government committed the Government to the principle of wage surveys, but fell short of a pledge to report results. “We called on Government to go further and require employers to publish the data rather than just collect it. Now the National Women’s Strategy appears to have made that commitment, and this represents a major breakthrough in the campaign for equal pay between men and women,” he said.

Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality Frances Fitzgerald has said she would meet IMPACT on the issue once the National Women’s Strategy was published. The union said it would seek further clarity on the Government’s planned reporting mechanism at that meeting.

ICTU has also praised the Government’s new pledge on pay gap reporting. Its equality officer, David Joyce said: “This is an important step in tackling gender-based pay inequality and we look forward to seeing this measure fully implemented.”

IMPACT also welcomed a Labour Party bill on the issue, which is now set to be introduced in the Seanad later this month. The union is now contacting senators to seek their support.

IMPACT has welcomed draft legislation that would see the controversial use of ‘zero-hour’ contracts banned. The proposed law, aimed at tackling precarious work practices, was informed by research from the University of Limerick and received Cabinet approval earlier this month.

The draft law would also curtail some of the worst abuses of precarious workers. For example, staff called into work unnecessarily would be entitled to be paid for at least three hours at three times the minimum wage.

Crucially, the proposals would also entitle workers to significantly more information on their employment situations. Employers would be forced to set out workers’ core terms and working hours within five days of the start of their employment. 

Employers who failed to share this information, or to comply with any other aspect of the proposed rules, would be guilty of a criminal offence.

ICTU general secretary Patricia King said much of the draft legislation was “quite positive.”

IMPACT welcomed cabinet’s decision to approve the draft. The union’s deputy general secretary, Kevin Callinan, said: “Zero-hours contracts annihilate workers’ ability to plan for the future. They introduce a destructive level of uncertainty into people’s financial planning, and any attempt to slow the spread of precarious work is to be welcomed.”

The draft legislation will now be referred to the Office of the Attorney General for priority drafting of a bill.

A strong delegation from IMPACT turned out for the annual May Day march in Dublin, which highlighted the deepening housing and homelessness crisis. The annual celebration of trade union-won gains in workers’ rights was organised by the Dublin Council of Trade Unions, in partnership with the National Homeless and Housing Coalition.

IMPACT lead organiser Joe O’Connor said: “Our members working in local authorities and homeless services are trying to deliver housing solutions to people in extraordinarily difficult circumstances, and IMPACT appreciates the complexity of the issue.

“However, the continued escalation of the housing and homelessness crisis means that radical solutions need to be not only considered but implemented as a matter of urgency. This includes a cost rental public housing model as advocated by NESC and NERI, the immediate introduction of a robust and proportionate vacant land levy, and a permanent model of rent regulation tied to the consumer price index.

Continued reliance on a chaotic and turbulent private sector will continue to fall short in meeting the scale of the challenge we face.”

IMPACT was one of several trade unions that attended the Future of Workconference in Dublin last Friday (12^th May). Employer bodies, state representatives and academics also took part in the conference, which looked at the challenges of a working world transformed by automation, artificial intelligence and emerging non-standard forms of employment.

The conference was hosted by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and was opened by minister Mary Mitchell O’Connor TD. There were a series of high quality presentations at the conference, which was addressed by the assistant director general of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Nicholas Niemtchinow.

Peter Cosgrove, director of the recruitment firm CPL, outlined how technology is disrupting the world of work, and how our assumptions about technology, brands and the organisations behind them are rapidly changing.

He said our relationship with the physical workplace was undergoing a radical transformation. Cosgrove argued that individual workers have the capacity to control the blurring of the lines between work and our personal lives.

Professor Michael Doherty of Maynooth University looked at the employment relationship and the law. Doherty looked at the emerging pressures to redefine the nature of employment relationships, how the definition of employees has been challenged by the so-called gig economy, and how the courts have responded.

Looking at the new world of work Professor Jeremias Prassl of Oxford University delivered a fascinating presentation on ‘Humans as a service’ in the context of the gig economy.

In an evenly weighted presentation, Prassl argued that the most optimistic and most pessimistic assessments of the effects of the gig economy are simultaneously true, as a form of ‘double speak’ characterises the way in which these new services – like Uber and Deliveroo – are presented.

Prassl concluded that ‘gigs, tasks, rides,’ etc, are work by definition and should be regulated as such. While the technology is new, it’s still dealing with old problems. He likened the gig economy to the organisation of piece work in the 19^th century. He also outlined how the gig economy might stand in the way of innovation, as cheap labour is favoured by the tech companies over investment in better technology.

IMPACT was represented at the conference by deputy general secretary Kevin Callinan and lead organiser Joe O’Connor.

Kevin said the conference was a timely opportunity for government, unions and employers to examine the challenges that are effectively already upon us. “As one of the speakers said, the pace of change will never be as slow as it is now. It made me think that, while new forms of work have the potential to create great wealth, unions must convince workers that it is possible to achieve a more equal distribution of the wealth created and lead the fight to achieve this outcome.

“We need to be part of the conversation about these technological advances and to educate our members,” he said.

Joe added: “The rapid pace of change poses a major challenge for the trade union movement. We need to respond coherently to the disruptive wave of change, ensure a just and fair transition for workers, and future-proof the world of work for younger workers and the generations that will follow them.”

The conference programme is available here.

IMPACT is continuing to develop its research into the digitalisation of work, the gig economy, artificial intelligence, automation and a progressive model of Universal Basic Income (UBI). The union will be represented at the IDA’s workshop on The Future of Artificial Intelligence in Ireland which takes place on Wednesday (17^th May).

See also:

• Blog: we need to talk about robots  – IMPACT website
• Irish workers need a right to disconnect – Irish Tech News (opinion piece by Lughan Deane of IMPACT’s Communications Unit).

The Labour Court has said a dispute over Wexford County Council’s decision to bar experienced library staff from interviews for full-time posts should be resolved through negotiations. IMPACT, the union that represents the workers, welcomed the Court’s intervention and called on management to immediately enter talks to resolve the row.

IMPACT’s Wexford official Shay Clinton said the four part-time workers involved had been seeking full-time posts for some time, and had worked extra hours to help retain branch library services during the crisis-era ban on local authority recruitment.

“These women put their shoulder to the wheel to keep libraries open during the recession. Instead of showing its appreciation, the Council is now barring them from competing for full time library assistant posts. Now that we finally have the scope for some recruitment in local authorities, it’s shameful that these staff were not allowed to interview for full-time posts,” he said.

Shay said there were wider questions over the recruitment process in Wexford county council, where an independent adjudicator is expected to rule on another issue soon.

The 2017 IMPACT gaeltacht scholarship grant recipients have been announced. Eighty of the 355 applicants will each receive a €150 grant for children attending residential Irish language courses in Gaeltacht areas this summer. The draw, held on 4^th April, was conducted by members of the union’s general services committee. The successful applications are:

Antony Abse - Galway

Rachel Akkoc - Institutes of Technology

Susan Barnes - Dublin Hospitals

Brian Barrett - Galway

Orla Barry - Limerick Health

Sadie Bradley - Donegal Local Government

Edith Bridcut - Dublin Hospitals

Jennifer Brown - Dublin Hospitals

Karen Buckley - Limerick Health

Dympna Byrne - Louth

Mairead Cadden - Cavan

Anita Cafolla - Dublin Hospitals

Tom Cahill- Cavan

Melanie Clarke - Dublin Hospitals

Sarah Clarke - Institutes of Technology

Veronica Coffey - Donegal Health

Kieran Corbett - Legal Officers

Sonia Coughlan - NETB

Helen Cummins - Galway

Anne Cunningham - Cavan

Corina Dolan - SNA South Leinster

Ciaran Donaghy - Ordnance Survey

Gwen Doyle - NETB

Barbara Duffy - Institutes of Technology

Bernadette Eccles - NETB

Richard Egan - Psychologists

Valerie Enright - Limerick Health

Sharon Eustace - Psychologists

Olivia Evans - Offaly

Pauline Feely - Sligo

Aisling Fitzgerald - Institutes of Technology

Patricia Flynn - Monaghan

Eugene Gargan - Communications

Paul Graham - IAESA

Carmel Hamill - Offaly

Joann Keegan - Dublin Hospitals

Padraic Killarney - Agriculture No.1

Paula Larkin - SNA Munster

Mary Layden - Education No.1

Barbara Levins - Dublin Hospitals

Joe Lumsden - Louth

Alison Lynch - Dublin South HSE

Cathriona MacCarthy - Roscommon

Claire Madden - Ballinasloe

Yvonne Magill - Institutes of Technology

Helen Maher - Limerick Health

Geraldine Mangan - NETB

Eileen McCarthy - Cork

Noeleen McConway - State Enterprise No.1

Brian McGuire - Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown

Kenneth McManus - IALPA

Francis Mollen - Offaly

Patrick Moloney - Longford

Dervla Moore - Limerick Health

Laurence Moore - Donegal Health

Thomas Moran - Dairy Produce Inspectors

Joanne Morrissey - Mayo

Christine Murphy - Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown

Yvonne Nolan – Clare

Shirley Noone - Dublin Hospitals

Audrey Nugent - State Laboratory

Anne Marie O’Dwyer - SNA South Leinster

Carey O’Mahony, Sinead - Tipperary South Health and Community

Brenda Pierce - South Dublin

Mary Quinn - NETB

Marie Regan – Roscommon

Hugo Reilly - Road Safety Authority

Peter Salmon - Galway

Paula Stenson - Sligo

Anne Tangney - Cork

Lynda Thompson - Dublin Hospitals

Pat Travers - Road Safety Authority

Imelda Tully - Ballinasloe

Martina Walsh - Donegal Health

Sinead Ward - Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown

Mary White - Sligo

Clarice Wynne – Leitrim.

A team of IMPACT members from South Dublin county council won the ‘great IMPACT quiz,’ which took place earlier this month to raise cash for Syrian refugees. The event, which was organised by the IMPACT young members’ group, raised €8,000 for World Vision Ireland’s work with Syrian children on the Turkish border.

Some 19 teams participated, and many more IMPACT branches sent donations. The union’s Central Executive Committee agreed to match the €4,000 raised through registration, raffles and bar takings on the night.

Event organiser Joe O’Connor said: “We would like to extend a special thanks to all IMPACT staff and activists who made this event such a great success, and that ensured we reached our ambitious fundraising target.”

The winning team 'Elvis Presley's Plumbers' comprised Olibhear and Monika MacCraith, Eoin Roche and Ellen McLoughlin – a group of friends recruited to the event by Una Maguire, secretary of IMPACT’s South Dublin branch.

The ‘One Cork’ trade union grouping, which includes IMPACT, has called for the establishment of a municipal housing authority to accelerate the building of public housing. The group says this would avoid an over-reliance on private sector housing, which has failed to solve the accommodation crisis.

The proposal says the municipal authority should be a stand-alone non-profit company that would pool existing expertise available within local authorities, including architects, finance and procurement experts. The One Cork group believes this, and the authority’s not-for-profit status, could reduce the cost of houses by 15-20%.

The new housing authority would be answerable to council management. Houses built on State-owned land would be offered on long-term leases to tenants, with rental income used to pay back borrowing obtained from the European Investment Bank.

Fiona Dunne, who co-ordinates the One Cork Project, said ICTU fully supported the Cork initiative. She said the One Galway project would follow suit to address the housing crisis there. Together Cork and Galway would serve as a blueprint for the rest of the country.

IMPACT deputy general secretary Kevin Callinan said: “This is a great example of trade unions working together at a local level to provide solutions to serious social issues. We have a housing crisis. There is a need for a building programme for social housing. This mechanism provides a way for the necessary funds to be obtained while still fully utilising local authority services.”

IMPACT and 19 other unions have been active participants in One Cork since its inception. At a national level IMPACT has been highlighting the housing and homeless crises over recent years. Most recently IMPACT and four other unions mounted the Fair Rent Campaign to raise awareness of problems in the private rented sector.

Negotiations on public service pay recovery are expected to get underway within the next week or so, following the publication of the report of the Public Service Pay Commission (PSPC) 2017 last Tuesday. The report, which is summarised in this document found that average pay in the public service is now on a par with the private sector, and is 8% lower than in 2008.

IMPACT general secretary Shay Cody said the union’s main objective in the talks will be to set a timetable for the quickest possible restoration of the pay cuts and pension levy imposed in 2009-2010. The union will also fight to maintain the existing value of public service pensions.

The Government has said it will seek an increase in employee pension contributions as the so-called pension levy is phased out over time. It was supported in this objective by the PSPC report.

The commission found that public servants employed before 2013 have pensions worth between 12% and 18% more than average pensions in the private sector. The 12-18% range spans actuarial assessments submitted to the commission by the ICTU Public Services Committee (12%) and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (18%).

More helpfully, the commission’s own actuarial review puts the pension gap at between 13% and 14%, which is closer to the union estimate than the employer’s. It said pension arrangements for public servants hired after January 2013 were on a par with private sector averages.

IMPACT will also put the 15 million additional public service working hours, which were introduced under the Haddington Road agreement, on the talks agenda. However the Government says it’s unwilling to budge on this point, which it has defined as a ‘red line’ issue.

Last week’s publication of the PSPC report led the news headlines, and drew some of the standard criticism of public servants and their pay and pensions. IMPACT led the union response with appearances on all the major news programmes, including this defence of public service pensions on RTÉ’s Primetime, and a comprehensive outline of the issues on RTÉ’s Drivetime programme.

IMPACT has also called for equity in the FEMPI wind-down, warning against special deals for particular groups of public servants and calling for increases for lower paid staff who are no longer subject to FEMPI measures. In response to ministerial calls for ‘sustainable’ pay increases, the union said they must also have substance if they were to win the support of union members in ballots.

Read IMPACT’s summary of the PSPC report HERE.

Read the full PSPC report HERE.

IMPACT has warned against special deals for particular groups of public servants, and said that an extension to the Lansdowne Road agreement must have substance to win the support of union members. Speaking at the union’s Local Government Division conference in Letterkenny last week, national secretary Peter Nolan said workers would not back a deal that only “gives with one hand and takes away with another."

Peter also reiterated the union’s stance that lower paid staff must benefit from any pay increases too. This includes those on incomes below €28,750, who are no longer subject to FEMPI measures.

“Public servants were all dragged into FEMPI together and we expect and deserve to get out of it together. The Government and its negotiators must resist the temptation to interpret the responsible majority of public servants, who abide by agreements and negotiate in good faith, as indifferent or weak,” he warned.

Peter said a large number of public service groups and professions “including many that earn far less than those who routinely grab the headlines” could make a rational case for special treatment. “If special favours are conceded to any group in the forthcoming talks, other claims will certainly emerge,” he said.

Responding to Government indications that there was little money available for pay restoration, particularly in 2018, Peter said workers’ expectations were realistic, but a talks outcome that lacked substance would not be accepted in union ballots.

“We know there are competing demands on the public purse. We know any agreement has to be sustainable. But it must also have substance if it is to win the support of those who make their living by serving the public. We won’t accept an outcome that only gives with one hand and takes away with the other,” he said.

The Government has been slammed for failing to collect details of the gender pay gap in local councils. Last week, delegates at IMPACT’s Local Government Division conference heard calls for local authorities to be required to publish details of gender-based occupational segregation in their organisations.

The union published an interim report detailing how local authorities were failing to implement their own family-friendly employment policies, which could help remove barriers to women’s career advancement in the sector.

The report, What gets measured gets managed: gender inequality in local government, says the Local Government Management Association’s most recent workforce planning report made no reference to gender, despite boasting ‘extensive data’ on employment in the sector. “No gender breakdown appears to have been requested, even though this is a core consideration in workforce planning,” it says.

The report’s author, social researcher Camille Loftus, said a recent Dáil question had also revealed that the Minister for Housing, Environment and Local Government could produce no gender employment figures for any Irish local authority, despite collecting quarterly data on local authority staffing.

“There is a gaping deficit in relation to gender equality and access to family friendly policies in the local government sector. But if ‘what gets measured gets managed,’ we should not be surprised at continued gender inequality within local government,” Camille told the conference.

The division has agreed to continue its own research, including by surveying members and HR managers in the sector.

A 2013 report by a national newspaper found that 10 out of 34 local authorities had no women in managerial positions. In the best performing authority, just 21% of senior staff were female. Meanwhile, 83% of council staff in the lowest two clerical grades were women.

IMPACT national secretary Peter Nolan said the absence of women in senior local government posts was in large part due to the sector’s worsening record on implementing flexitime arrangements and other family friendly policies. The conference passed motions condemning the erosion of family friendly policies, and calling on the union to initiate a nationwide campaign on the issue.

According to the report: “By and large, local government has a lamentable record in implementing family friendly flexibility, even compared to other sectors in the Irish public service. Progressive family friendly policies have been shown to be effective in tackling the ‘glass ceiling’ that hampers women’s career progression by enabling consistent participation in the workforce over time, and allowing women to build the experience, skills and networks that lead to promotions to more senior positions.”

The union urged local government minister Simon Coveney to collect and publish statistics on the gender pay gap and gender segregation between grades in local authorities. “This would be in line with the recently-published National Strategy for Women and Girls 2017-2020, which contains a Government commitment to report the results of the gender pay gap surveys it intends to introduce for organisations with 50 or more employees,” according to Peter.

Ireland’s local authorities need more funds and staff to rebuild services reeling from crisis-era cuts, and to deal with the fallout of international events and trends, according to the Cathaoirleach of the union’s Local Government Division. Speaking to delegates at the union’s Local Government and Local Services conference in his native Donegal, Sean Reid said the sector has suffered deeper cuts than any other part of the public service, including a 28% reduction in staffing since 2008.

Sean said local councils were struggling to deal with the local impact of challenges like Brexit, trade fluctuations, refugees and automation. “In many ways, the only things still local about local government are the people we serve, and the communities we live in. Our border and rural authorities are bracing themselves for the potentially catastrophic impact of Brexit on jobs, livelihoods, workers’ rights and – in this part of the world – even their daily commute.

“Our communities are subject to the vagaries of international trade: On one side, privatisation-encouraging multinational deals like CETA, TTIP and TiSA. On the other, Trumponomics, which threatens to sap our local economies of job-rich and technology-rich multinational employers. We are welcoming refugees from war-torn Syria, at least we will be when the Government gets its finger out and fulfils the modest commitments it has made.

“And local authorities and their staff are rising to all these challenges, just as we are navigating the dangers and opportunities of that other global phenomenon, automation,” he said.

Sean also urged delegates to show solidarity with staff in Irish Water and local authority water services. “They did not conceive or implement the ongoing fiasco we’ve seen on public water policy over the last two years and more. But they have been unfairly criticised, vilified in the Oireachtas and the media, and even threatened on the streets,” he said.

He added that IMPACT had successfully resisted management plans to axe 1,200 jobs from badly-stretched water services. “We will continue to ensure that local authorities, the Local Government Management Agency, and Irish Water operate the service level agreements, and the collective agreement that underpins it,” he said.

Over 160 delegates representing 12,000 local authority workers debated motions on pay, gender equality, housing, job evaluation and career progression, flexitime, working conditions, whistleblower protection. Delegates sent solidarity messages to Roscommon County Council staff in dispute over the withdrawal of flexitime, and to bus workers.

IMPACT national secretary Andy Pike has welcomed moves to establish a new civilian management structure at the Garda training college in Templemore. Talks on the implications of the new structure, which will see the appointment of a senior civilian manager to oversee the college finances and directly manage the facilities, are due to take place this week.

The need for improved governance and financial controls at the college has been highlighted in several audit reports discussed by the Public Accounts Committee over the past few weeks.

Andy said facilities staff working in the large college canteen had for years been paid as if they were employees of a Garda social club. “This has been an ongoing shambles and there is a clear need to modernise the management of civilian staff and resources within the college,” he said.

Andy said the new structure would bring all college facilities staff under one civilian manager and ensure clear accountability for day-to-day expenditure in those areas. “Catering staff are to be confirmed as college employees as part of this process. This essential modernisation is to be welcomed, as are the efforts of the national Garda HR service to bring transparency to college governance,” he said.

IMPACT is also seeking an explanation for the delay in appointing key staff to increase the cleaning workforce. Talks at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) led to an agreement to give permanent contracts to eight cleaning staff. The WRC outcome also envisaged the appointment of relief staff, new service attendants, and a new superintendent of cleaning.

“IMPACT expects rapid progress to be made on these issues,” said Andy.