Four members of Agsi national executive resign over governance concerns

Four members of the national executive of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (Agsi) have resigned after raising concerns about matters of governance. 

 

News of two of the resignations emerged on Monday, the day the association was opening its annual delegate conference in Killarney, Co Kerry. 

 

Their departures followed the resignations of two other national executive members last week. 

 

It is understood all four raised concerns over matters of governance and have resigned as they felt their concerns had not been addressed. 

 

Efforts to contact the Agsi for comment were not successful late last night. 

 

The conference opened on Monday, when Minister for Justice Helen McEntee and Agsi president Paul Curran addressed delegates. 

 

Garda Commissioner Drew Harris and Agsi general secretary Antoinette Cunningham were both due to address the conference on Tuesday. 

 

‘HR issues’ 

On Tuesday at the conference, the national executive faced questions from the floor over the resignations, though Agsi president Paul Curran said “HR issues” could not be discussed in detail in an open forum. 

 

“We are endeavouring to deal with these HR issues. But I’d ask people to understand, we are not in a position to comment on the specifics of any of the HR issues. We have to deal with them but we have to have confidentiality,” Mr Curran said in response to the questions coming from the floor during the delegate conference. 

 

He added he needed to seek legal advice on the matters in question, adding he could not go into detail around the reasons for the four resignations as they were “HR issues”. Mr Curran “pleaded” with delegates to persist with the conference so that the constitution could be changed “to enable us to deal with HR issues for both national executive [and] branches”. 

 

He urged people to “have faith” in the national executive. 

 

“We can make a coup out of it, we can do what we like with it, I would urge people to have the common decency to support what you see here and not to be always looking at why are the others gone. I can’t address it any clearer than that.” 

 

Mr Curran said advice, including legal advice, would be sought on whether a copy of written communication last week between the national executive and three trustees of Agsi could be provided to members of the association. 

 

During a debate about amending the constitution, Agsi general secretary Antoinette Cunningham said the current constitution “constrained” the association in addressing some of the “HR issues” that had been raised at the conference. 

 

The Irish Times