GRA to call for removal of McCabe killers' privileges

ireland.com reports:The Garda Representative Association (GRA) will today call on Minister for Justice Michael McDowell to remove the special privileges enjoyed by the killers of Det Garda Jerry McCabe.

A GRA spokesman confirmed to ireland.com this morning that the president of the GRA, Dermot O'Donnell, will call for the withdrawal of the arrangements under which the killers are held.

Kevin Walsh, Pearse McAuley, Jeremiah Sheehy and Michael O'Neill were sentenced in 1999 for between 11 and 14 years for manslaughter and are serving their sentences in the open prison at Castlerea in Co Roscommon.

The men are accommodated in houses rather than cells and the GRA wants an end to this practice and for the men to serve the rest of their sentences in prison.

Delegates at the GRA annual conference in Tralee will also claim the penalty points system has made gardaí very unpopular, and there will be a debate on how the "negative impact" can be minimised.

Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy and Mr McDowell will address the conference today.

Delegates will call for the provision of mobile phones to all Garda cars, and for the force's telecommunications system to be modernised.

They also want gardaí to stop using their own computers and cameras at work, so these items would be supplied by the State.

The conference is also expected to hear today that bullying within the force is one of the greatest causes of stress among rank-and-file gardaí.

Other motions at the conference include a demand for a second Garda medical officer to deal with backlog of members who have been injured on duty and are waiting for up to two years.

Delegates will debate 42 motions in total at the two-day conference.