Decision to allow Gardaí avail of surplus vaccines welcomed

The Garda Representative Association (GRA) has welcomed the decision by An Garda Síochána to allow members avail of surplus vaccines.

However, the organisation has criticised the failure of management to ensure Gardaí are appropriately positioned on the priority vaccination list.

The association has been advocating for gardaí to be among those to be vaccinated once those in the top priority categories have been immunised.

GRA interim General Secretary, Philip McAnenly, said: “Garda management met the GRA yesterday to confirm that when extra vaccines become available at the end of a vaccination session, our members may avail of any doses left over.

“Until yesterday, management had insisted that gardaí may not accept such offers. Management’s revised decision is a welcome outbreak of common sense but not a solution to the need for a proper vaccination plan for gardaí.”

Their members, he added, have always accepted that people such as the elderly, the medically vulnerable and frontline healthcare workers should go first.

“But after that, we believe the gardai should be among the next group of people to be vaccinated as critical frontline workers in the battle to contain Covid-19.

“Gardaí are at high risk of catching the virus in the course of their duties and therefore putting their families, their colleagues and the public at risk too.”