The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) has asked the Minister for Justice to clarify if people in prison will be vaccinated before gardaí.
AGSI general secretary Antoinette Cunningham told RTÉ radio’s News at One it would appear that was the case. She called for a risk assessment "between someone in a confined space and somebody on operational frontline being exposed on a continuous basis".
"They need to determine which of those risks is greater and which could be carried out first," she added.
Ms Cunningham said the AGSI was hoping to get clarity from the Minister about where the gardaí were on the vaccination priority list.
"There are suggestions that we could be in group 10, but we don't know for sure where we are, what we do know is that the policing of Covid-19 is becoming more difficult for us - with the fine weather there's an increased appetite for public gatherings, you see people sitting in the park and all of this creates a greater risk for the health and safety of our members."
It had been very disturbing for her members when they read media reports about non-frontline HSE workers getting the vaccine, she said.
"We don’t want to pitch ourselves against any group, we've been steadfast in our opinion, that the most vulnerable in society and frontline workers should be vaccinated first, but if the reports are accurate that people who work in a finance section of the HSE did receive vaccinations, then really you have to question where the governance and the accountability of the vaccination programme actually is."
Ms Cunningham called on the Taoiseach to provide the clarity required for members of the gardaí, adding it was becoming increasingly challenging to police Covid-19.
"The dangers are increasing every day in the job we have to do. Nobody can tell us when we might get vaccination and to hear of non-frontline workers in non-operational roles being vaccinated ahead of gardai who are putting life and limb at risk every day of the week, that is not satisfactory.
"That's where greater governance and accountability has to come in."
Ms Cunningham questioned the risk assessments that had been carried out to determine the ranking in the vaccination programme and said further risk assessment should be conducted to provide more clarity to National Immunisation Advisory Committee about the level of risk attached to specific jobs.
Public fatigue was setting in, she said, which made the job of the gardaí more difficult.
