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Talk to us today about life and serious

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illness cover. Carl, thank you very

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much for that. Now, earlier we spoke to guard

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the superintendent, Liam Garrity, in the wake of four

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or more tragic deaths on our roads in the

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last 48 hours. He said

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that a visible guard, the presence on

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the roads, moderates driver behavior. Meanwhile, in

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the Dall, Sinn Féin leader, Mary Lou

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McDonald, said that the center of Dublin

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city is scourged with antisocial behavior and

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that a proper ongoing guard, the presence

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is needed to ensure people's safety. Well,

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to discuss this further, we're joined now

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by Mark O'Mara, who is president of

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the GRA and by Trina O'Connor, criminologist

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and host of the Real Lives Untold podcast.

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And you're both welcome to the program.

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Mark, to yourself first, and we've spoken an

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awful lot in this program over the last

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couple of years in particular about guard the numbers

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and resources. Has there been any

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improvement in the efforts to recruit more guard?

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Good evening, Sarah, and thanks for having me on here. I

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suppose the issue of recruitment

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and retention is something that we've raised

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repeatedly over recent years and

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recent months. And while

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we accept there is a difficulty in recruiting,

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we have to outline and again reiterate

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that the repeated

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failing to recruit the numbers promised

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into our guard, GRA, has a

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detrimental effect to both policing and

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indeed the well-being of our

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members and morale within the job. And

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if you look at the numbers that were attested last

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Friday in the Guarda College, where I'm normally

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attached to, there was

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154, I

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believe, that were attested. I think it's

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157 is the numbers that we got.

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Yeah, but close enough. Yeah, yeah. And

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I think those numbers show the

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failure of the promised and

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expected 225 to 250 per intake. So

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there's a detrimental effect. I mean, we've... 139

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retirements so far this year and 89 resignations.

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That's 228 to date, significant number. So

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obviously the resource issue that we have

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outlined unfortunately has been realised

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and quite often that was dismissed and

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rejected out of hand and the issue

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of morale and resourcing. But we're seeing

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the effects of that now. And

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it is a government responsibility. Yeah, we

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were speaking to Minister Patrick O'Donovan about this a

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little earlier in the programme and he made the

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point that at the latest guard the recruitment campaign

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has been very strong. He said over 6,000 applications,

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I think it's actually 6,400 applications in total

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applying to become guard. He said the numbers

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are going up all the time and funding

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isn't an issue. I

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don't dispute that funding isn't

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an issue. I think that there has been efforts

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to invest in policing and

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recruitment. But even at 6,400

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looking to apply, as you can see,

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the numbers were actually getting through the

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recruitment process. And that recruitment

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process must stay as

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strict and as – with

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the integrity that it has now and we

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wouldn't call for anything less than the steps

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that people have to go through to be

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successful to become sworn members of the Garnish-Yakona.

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But it shows the small numbers that actually

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make it through. So that's 6,400 realistically. It's

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quite a small number. Okay.

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And what about then the changes that the

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government agreed to to increase the mandatory retirement

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age for guard the members from 60

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to 62 and allow people in from the age

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of I think 35 to 50 as well. So

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has any of that made a difference? I

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believe that there are some expressions

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of interest in both those areas. But

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again, we see

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from our own experience that the 60 to

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62-year-old, yes, they may seek

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to stay on until the age

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of 62. But it's very small numbers. And

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because of complex pension issues around

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that, they're now seeing that there

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where people may walk in the area,

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but they're not part of the community.

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And I do see a lot of

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really good work happening in, for example,

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the NEIC in response to Mulvey, you

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see a lot of really good community

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capacity building projects happening there. And

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you also see like resilience being built in

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the community. So that is relationships with the

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local garden station, where they're part of the

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youth clubs, where they're part of the football

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clubs. And all of these things are part

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of the garden's role. And to

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agree with your previous speaker, I think they're

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the types of roles within our garden station

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that people don't hear that much about, because

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they don't really get the headlines because they're

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prevented to walk, but they're so important and

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they need to be resolved. All

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right, well, it's very interesting to speak to both of you

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and thank you for joining us. That is Trina O'Connor and

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Mark O'Mara. We'll take a break.