Castlebar civil servants may be redeployed to help gardai

Department of Agriculture civil servants based in Mayo are to be given an opportunity to join the "gardaí"as part of the Government…

Department of Agriculture civil servants based in Mayo are to be given an opportunity to join the "gardaí"as part of the Government's decentralisation programme.

About 100 staff based in Castlebar faced an uncertain future because of the introduction of an EU single payment grant system to farmers under the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy.

However, a Government inter-departmental committee suggests that the workers can help free Garda personnel to get on with police work while civilians take care of the paperwork in the system known as the Police Using Leading Systems Effectively (Pulse).

The system is to be part of the Garda National Quality Assurance Unit in Castlebar which would be one of a number of centres providing the IT services to the force.

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The Government agreed in principle in February to allow this and specific proposals on the redeployment of the Castlebar staff will be put to them in a few weeks.

The Garda are looking for round-the-clock coverage for which workers would be paid a 25 per cent shift allowance.

Conditions of service would remain unchanged, with staff transferring from agriculture to justice.

The staff would be inputting incident reports and court outcomes. Gardaí will not supervise but will have a liaising and consultative role.

The gardaí are seeking 18-20 staff per shift. Training would involve five days in Templemore and two weeks on-the-job training.

Kevin Gaughran, of the Civil and Public Services Union, said many of the staff in Castlebar were interested in transferring as it meant that they would not have to leave the town.

Dave Thomas, of the Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants, said it was also having discussions with its members.