The Garda Representative Association (GRA) has been forced into an embarrassing U-turn within 24 hours of saying it would campaign against Government TDs in tight constituencies at the next election if plans for a Garda reserve were not abandoned.
GRA general secretary PJ Stone yesterday said he accepted the association had made a mistake in announcing plans to target five TDs in marginal constituencies and he apologised for it.
Delegates at the GRA annual conference in Galway voted overwhelmingly to reject the proposed Garda reserve force and endorsed a policy of non-co-operation with it. They later held a closed session to discuss ways in which this policy might operate.
Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has welcomed the association's change of approach.
"The Minister very much welcomes the fact that the general secretary has withdrawn the threats made yesterday by his association president," a spokesman for Mr McDowell said. "The Minister believes that gardaí throughout Ireland want to maintain their traditional apolitical values."
Mr Stone insisted last night that the reserve force was a "con job" and he confirmed that his members would not co-operate with it. He said he believed gardaí and the Department of Justice should utilise an independent forum to re- solve the impasse over the reserve.
The GRA proposal for a campaign against five Government TDs was announced by its president, John Egan, at the conference on Tuesday. But Mr Stone apologised for it yesterday.
"There is no policy decision by the GRA to become involved in politics. It is regrettable if that impression has been created. We have very strong policies against the reserve but we are not targeting anybody. If we have given that impression I am very sorry."
He hoped the GRA would not be affected by the issue.
Mr Egan had said that gardaí would target the TDs in the run-up to the next election in an attempt to cost them their seats. "We will be waiting in the long grass for them," he said.
The four constituencies concerned were Laois/Offaly, where there are two prisons and where the GRA believed the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Tom Parlon (PD), was in danger of losing his seat; Galway West where the GRA believed Noel Grealish (PDs) would be at risk; Longford-Westmeath where the GRA believed Mae Sexton (PDs) would be under pressure; and Tipperary North, where the Garda college is based and where Fianna Fáil needs to return two TDs in a three-seat constituency.
On hearing of the plan on Tuesday, Mr McDowell warned gardaí to stay out of politics. Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy said all members had taken an oath to be apolitical and he said he would sanction any garda who broke this oath.
Yesterday, outgoing GRA president Dermot O'Donnell said he believed gardaí could take a case to the courts and block the implementation of the reserve force on the basis that working alongside part-time members was a safety risk for gardaí. He believed this case could be won despite Mr McDowell having dismissed it as "legal nonsense".
He said delegates had overwhelmingly voted for a motion rejecting the Garda reserve. This had effectively endorsed the GRA's position of non-co-operation.
"We will not have anything to do with them," Mr O'Donnell said.
Debate on the reserve force dominated the three-day conference which ended last night.
Garda James Griffiths, representing Galway West, told the conference that the Irish public wanted fully resourced full-time officers rather than reservists.
"I firmly believe that the Garda reserve is an accountant's answer to a policing problem," he said.
Garda Seosaimh Ó Conghaile, Clontarf, Dublin, said many people had told gardaí they had lost the fight against the reserve force.
"We've been told we've been outgunned, outmanoeuvered," he said.
But the reality was the fight had not yet begun, he said.