The Garda Representative Association (GRA) is calling for mandatory minimum sentences for attacks on frontline emergency workers and for the Government to expedite the issuing of body cameras and tasers to all gardaí.
Garda Commissioner Drew Harris is to address the conference when it opens in Co Mayo this morning.
The safety of its members, the high number of gardaí leaving the organisation and constraints on their ability to police the State are among the main issues at the GRA annual conference which opens today.
Rank and file gardaí from Cavan and Monaghan point out that they have to access some parts of the State by crossing the border into Northern Ireland and that they and the public are put at risk because armed officers cannot carry their weapons.
Officers are also highly critical of what they say is the unfair treatment of gardaí who remain on suspension for years only to be ultimately found innocent of any wrongdoing.
An exit survey by the GRA also shows that the increasing number of gardaí prematurely leaving the force do so because of bullying and stress.
The association has also welcomed GSOC's decision to ask the gardaí to investigate claims by one of its former senior officers that he attended a party with Gerard 'The Monk' Hutch, saying the gardaí are the appropriate authority to investigate potential criminality.
