We are nearing our 2016 Annual Delegate Conference and my last as President. It has been an absolute pleasure to represent you for the past three years. I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every member for your support and interactions throughout my tenure.
While our work is not done, and given the nature of the job, it will never be done, be sure in the knowledge that I and my National Executive and Secretariat colleagues have your interests and issues to the forefront of our minds at all times.
I would like to wish President elect Antoinette Cunningham the very best in her new role. Antoinette was elected unopposed in the recent Presidential elections.
We appointed John Jacob as General Secretary in the past month also. John has extensive experience and brings new vigour to the post. I would like to thank him for his acting up role since last November and wish him the very best. We expect the post of Deputy General Secretary to be filled shortly and we will keep you updated on that.
We asked you to complete a survey as part of our Pay Restoration campaign. Full results of this survey will be presented next week at Conference. Pay will be the dominant theme and while not all members will be in attendance we will share daily updates with all of you via our website blog, members’ news area and this e-zine.
I look forward to meeting delegates in Westport on April 11th. National Executive 2016 – 2019
Congratulations to the successful candidates in the 2016 National Executive elections. The incoming Executive will take their seats following Conference at the May meeting.
2016-2019 National Executive
Connacht / Ulster
- Rory Brennan (Mayo)
- Ernie White (Galway)
- Paul McDermott (Roscommon)
Dublin
- Michael Hiney (DMR South Central)
- Tim Galvin (DMR East)
- Larry Brady (DMR North)
- Christy Morrison (DMR West)
Leinster
- Cormac Moylan (Westmeath)
- Donal Smyth (Meath)
- Brian O’Dea (Garda Headquarters)
Munster
- Antoinette Cunningham (Garda College)
- Chris Cronin (Cork City)
- Pat Meany (Cork West)
Monthly Meetings Prepared By John Jacob
Irish Conference of Professional and Services Associations (ICPSA)
The General Secretary met with the other affiliate associations and unions of ICPSA on 2 March with the view of nominating candidates to the Labour Panel for the Seanad elections. AGSI and the other Associations and Unions can nominate up to seven candidates. AGSI had previously nominated four candidate for consideration for nomination by the ICPSA Executive Committee.
Following an examination of the proposed candidates AGSI’s four candidates were endorsed by the ICPSA Executive. Our nominees were: Gerard Craughwell, a sitting Senator from Dublin, Joe Neville, Leixlip, Kate Feeney Dun Laoghaire and Robbie Gallagher, Monaghan will join three sitting Senators who were also nominated. These sitting Senators are Maurice Cummins, Ned O’Sullivan and Terry Leyden.
Release 6.8
Chief Superintendent Finn met with the General Secretary John Jacob and Executive members Donal Smyth and Cormac Moylan following a request from AGSI last February.
AGSI raised a number of serious concerns we have in relation to the operation of 6.8 generally. Issues arise under two headings for AGSI members:
- Technical issues; how the system operates and improvement opportunities to make it more user friendly; and
- Implementation issues; lack of consistency across areas including within Divisions and the lack of understanding Superintendents have on how to use the incident status correctly.
AGSI brought forward matters raised by Branches following a request for feedback last Month.That feedback together with first hand experiences of Sergeants and Inspectors on the National Executive allowed us to clearly articulate where the system was failing.
In relation to the technical issues Chief Finn pointed out that there will be changes to the system in the next PULSE releases. This should address some of our concerns and other concerns will be looked at with a view to providing improvements.
As regards the implementation issues Chief Finn expressed disappointment that there was poor compliance among Superintendents in the use of the system. He acknowledged that if these are issues for our members they needed to be highlighted to local management. He told AGSI that he was preparing to meet all Superintendents on a Region by Region basis and that he would bring our concerns up at these meetings.
He further stated that there is currently a programme in place to meet with PAF administrators and go through their role and the use of the system with a view to ensuring consistency at that level.
AGSI provided a copy of our feedback from Branches to Chief Finn and requested he provide a response to the matters raised to AGSI in early course. Hopefully your input will assist us in making improvements to the system to your advantage.
Performance and Exhibit Management (PEMS)
The President and General Secretary attended a meeting on PEMS with Garda Management on 21st April. This meeting focused on the rollout of the PEMS system to areas where PEMS is not in place currently. AGSI raised concerns about how this would impact on our members as some Divisions have decided the responsibility for recording property on PEMS rests with Sergeants.
Placing responsibility for PEMS management on Sergeants will see a significant increase in workload for those sergeants. AGSI pointed out how the rollout proposed did not mirror the process in Divisions where PEMS’ stores were already in place. AGSI contend that the Divisional PEMS process must be replicated at District level where PEMS is being implemented now.
Sergeants should move to divest the responsibility for PEMS recording and management to a suitable Garda or Civilian as is the case where Divisional PEMS stores operate. To this end Branches may need to take the matter up with local management initially. If local Branches have no success then it should be escalated to the National Executive for progression.
2016 Annual Delegate Conference
The 2015 Annual Report of the AGSI and 2016 Conference Programme is now with delegates and a PDF copy is available on the members section of the AGSI website.
The theme of this year’s Conference is “Rising Up For Pay Equality”
and pre-empts AGSI’s planned and sustained campaign for pay restoration for members. So we hope you engage with us in all aspects of this strategy.
Branch secretaries are asked to send their written responses to motions to Joanne Sweeney-Burke who will be managing all media activities throughout the three days of Conference. As you are aware media are interested in Branch motions and interviewing Branch spokespersons. In order for Joanne to help prepare you / Branch colleagues for interview, please send her your written motion response by email no later than Friday 8th April at 5pm. Email joanne@digitaltraining.ie
