Interesting experience at Garda station

S

shnaek

Guest
I wanted to open an online share account with Davy or Sharewatch. As part of the application I needed a certified copy of my drivers license or passport. This could be certified by a commissioner for oaths, a bank manager or a Garda. So in I went to the Garda station with a photocopy of my license and my real license.

Garda: "I can't certify this!"
Me: "Why not?"
Garda: "Your license could be a fake, generated on a computer."

If that is the case why do they ask you for your license for any road offence, or anything at all for that matter?
 
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I'd go back and ask to speak to a superior. I had much the same trouble. Basically, no guard wants to sign his name to anything. In their mind, it creates the notion of now being able to be caught.
I stood my ground, for me it was an online bank account. He kept saying, sure your solicitor could do it. Your parish priest could do it. And I refused to leave. I said no no no, you can do it, you are mandated to do it, I want it done. After 15 minutes of me refusing to leave he eventually signed it. I'd demand though to speak to his boss, and his bosses boss if he comes to it.
 
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It cracks me up when you go to a cop shop for some reason and they open up a big ledger-style book the size of the counter and enter all the details by pen. What sort/quality of management info are these capable of providing.

These guys are still in the stone age (and happy with it). It's no wonder crime is widespread.
 
Comment

I had to do the very same thing recently.
I have a nominee account with Fexco and they needed a certified copy of my driver's licence for ID purposes.
Went to my local Garda station and got the copy signed.
Actually, I don't think the Garda looked at the original licence.
They have to sign it for you.
Go back and kick up a fuss!
 
Re: Comment

Too late now anyway - I got it done in the bank today, with no problem at all.
It is interesting though to hear what ye have said about them having to sign it. Not to mention the fact that I was waiting 15 mins in the Garda station for someone to acknowledge me. At least 4 Gardai passed over and back without so much as a nod in my direction.
I have come to expect this level of service from the civil service here anyway. It doesn't really surprise me any more.
 
Re: Comment

The Garda shouldnt have to do this type of This post will be deleted if not edited to remove bad language when theres scum out waiting to be arrested. The Garda should have civil servants doing this clerical type work for them.
 
.

The Gardai are civil servants, paid by us taxpayers, I would have thought ?
 
civil servants

the gardai do have clerical workers for a lot of tasks. Look at the range of tasks the front desk at a station does.
Passports
Car tax
Parole sign ons
Crime reporting
good character certificates
theres probably more, but its a bit late

Which would you have a clerical worker do and which a garda and bear in mind the range of different people applying for passports and good character references?
Im happy the gardai are doing all above.
 
999

Shnaek, The question I want answered is "why are you opening an online trading account at Davys'?"
What sort of rates are they charging?
 
Re: 999

Been humminga dn hawing about opening an account for ages. I looked at C.O.C, sharewatch and Davy. Davy charge .75% plus €100 in fees. Sharewatch are cheaper, but they are based in Scotland and after the whole Morrogh thing I am afraid of using the less established share dealers incase I loose my investments. The banking365 thing is also handy fro transeferring money about conveniently.
 
?

good character references?
Im happy the gardai are doing all above.
Click to expand...

Why? - what do gardai know about good character?
 
they know you.....

if they don't know you, you're a good character!

:b


PS I don't think the gardai are too happy about their lack of computerisation - look how they were forced to bring in penalty points without adequate systems. And now, the public having realised the lack of policing on the roads, the standards seem to me to be much the same as before. We had a few months of law-abiding driving in the months after penalty points were brought in, that's all.
 
Who procures and deploys Garda IT and related infrstructural support because they don't seem to have a stellar track record based on the evidence of the PULSE IT system and various radio communications systems deployed over recent years...
 
computerisation

Didn't they spend tens of millions on PULSE?

Is this just lying idle while they sharpen their pencils?
 
Last time I heard about PULSE details were being collected manually and then forwarded to some central location for data input which seemed to defeat one of the primary purposes of IT systems facilitating distributed input/control and immediate sharing of information. I also heard rumours that the system was quite unreliable and prone to crashes. I was never clear if this was a flaw with the technical or administrative/deployment aspects of the system.
 
Pen pushers and one-finger typists

"The Garda shouldnt have to do this type of This post will be deleted if not edited to remove bad language when theres scum out waiting to be arrested. The Garda should have civil servants doing this clerical type work for them. "

God help any Department of Justice that tries to move the Templemore qulaified-pen-pushers and one-finger-typists back out to deal with the "scum". Those guys have tripped and fallen and drank to get those positions out of the public eye. It's part of the whole system, that goes along with "if you're not making more outside the force than in the force by the time you're 40, you've failed!". Quote from ex-Garda.
 
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I think there is a culture within the Gardai that seeks to maintain the status quo. While ther are some who would embrace IT (and its capacity to work for you), more of them feel the fear but don't do it anyway.

I was in conversation with a fraud squad inspector last year who bemoaned the loss of the telex machine in Garda stations as it was "a good way of hearing if some lad's (i.e a colleague's) father or mother died".

Leaving aside the question of why technology is present in the first place, it was clear that the concept of electronc mail hadn't yet caught on to any great extent.

Mind you, they all seem to have cottoned on to the whole mobile phone thing - but at whose expense?
 
blue flu

Wasn't the whole "blue flu day" thing a few years ago about the Gardai protesting about being asked to use their new computerised system?
 
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They probably heard someone talking about possible viruses (or perhaps worms!) and felt ill.
 
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