GARDAI are to vote on a proposed reunification of their rival representative groups following the collapse of opposition to a ballot within the main Garda body.
Leaders of the Garda Representative Association (GRA) said on Monday that they would not hold a ballot on the unification proposals until the Government had addressed the issue of Garda pay.
But yesterday they conceded that the tactic had misfired and said that ballot papers would be distributed tomorrow.
"We thought if the Minister [Mrs Owen] was so concerned about unification that she would give us a commission on pay. That didn't work" said the GRA's acting general secretary, Mr P.J. Stone. He added that the GRA had never intended to deny its members a vote oh reunification.
Meanwhile, opposition to the ballot within the breakaway Garda Federation has also dwindled. Only 60 of the federation's 2,500 members have attended meetings in Dublin this week to oppose the ballot.