NEXT week's ballot on terms for a newly-constituted representative association for gardai may now be stopped, it has emerged.
The Garda Representative Association (GRA) has failed to distribute ballots to its members and is holding a meeting on Monday to discuss a motion that it should refuse to participate until claims for a commission on pay are met by the Government.
The Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, has already indicated that there is "no enthusiasm" in Government for a Garda pay commission.
The GRA move against the ballot, which would almost certainly have reunited the disputing Garda groups, caused consternation yesterday among other representatives and senior management.
Ballots were to have been distributed this weekend with voting to begin on Monday and to be completed by next Friday.
The proposal to stop the ballot is expected to cause further splits in the association.
There is already growing concern over the financial cost of the dispute within the GRA. Since the dispute, the association has been spending heavily and there is concern among some members about the state of its finances.
The Irish Times has learned that the GRA made a loss of £362,268 last year. Its income, mainly from subscriptions, was £901,862 and its expenditure £1,264,130.
Its reserves have fallen from just over £2 million two years ago, when the dispute began to £1,161,000 by the end of last year.
Among the expenditure listed in the accounts are legal fees of £198,000 and "consultancy fees" of £34,353. The GRA's leadership has retained the public relations services of the Fianna Fail director of elections, Mr P.J. Mara.
Divisions within the GRA over next week's ballot of all 8,000 members of garda rank emerged earlier this week, when circulars were sent out to the membership from the association's leaders with clearly conflicting views on the proposed changes.
The chairman of the GRA's negotiation committee, which worked out the new deal with the dissident officials, has commended the proposals to the membership.
The circular from the GRA negotiator, Mr Jim Clinton from Finglas, urges gardai that there is "now no justification for continuing the present divisiveness". It also calls on all gardai to vote Yes in the ballot.
However, the acting general secretary of the GRA, Mr R.J. Stone, has issued another circular critical of the proposals which were drawn up under the auspices of the ICTU general secretary, Mr Peter Cassells.
Mr Stone describes the proposals as "undemocratic" and says changes to the internal disciplinary system could "provide for anarchy".