THE GARDA Representative Association (GRA) is to press ahead with balloting its members on industrial action despite warnings from Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern and Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy that such action would be illegal.
The GRA’s national executive last night ended two days of talks at its headquarters in Dublin after it was decided not to defer or cancel the ballot.
Teachers are also considering industrial action in response to cuts in public sector pay announced in the Budget. A ban on all school sports and other extra-curricular activities is one of the options being considered.
At this stage, teacher unions say there is no question of any disruption to Leaving Certificate oral exams scheduled for March. But the unions may come under pressure from more militant members to disrupt the exams.
GRA sources said the decision to ballot its members had been taken at a meeting last Saturday and the association would not be deterred by subsequent negative reaction.
Sources within the association said the ballot papers would be printed in the next fortnight and posted to members as soon as possible. The result, which would be known next month, would inform the GRA’s plans to protest over the pay cuts for public service staff announced in the Budget as well as at the association’s exclusion from recent, and future, talks on public sector savings and reforms.
Separately yesterday, the president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Jack O’Connor, said it was open to unions to set a date in January and say they would stop work and that “they would not start again until it was over one way or the other”.
Alternatively, there could be a more focused campaign over a longer period which would have less effect on the citizens of the country, he said.
The GRA represents almost 12,000 rank-and-file gardaí in a force of 14,500. GRA sources said the logistics of organising the postal ballot may take longer than first anticipated. It has begun the process of finding a returning officer and is also planning a system of independent oversight by auditors.
Mr Ahern has described the plans as an “affront to democracy”.
A statement issued by Garda Headquarters last night said Mr Murphy would not be commenting. Instead he would wait to hear directly from the GRA.
A spokesman for Mr Ahern said the Minister had made it “abundantly clear” that the GRA “needs to reflect very carefully”.
Fine Gael’s spokesman on justice Charlie Flanagan TD said the decision by the GRA to persist with the ballot was “seriously misguided”.
