A HIGH COURT judge yesterday reserved judgment, until today 11 a.m., on the Minister for Justice's application for an injunction to prevent the Garda Representative Association going ahead with elections.
Mrs Owen was accused in the court by Mr John Ferry, general secretary of the Garda Representative Association, of consistently, fostering the breakaway Garda Federation to the detriment of the GRA.
During the summer the Minister made an order deferring the elections until next March as she wanted them linked to the association's annual conference next May.
Yesterday Mr Ferry told the Court the elections were under way when the Minister's order was made and the association had decided to go ahead with them. The Minister was seeking an injunction blocking the elections until the Court determined a dispute about her right to make the order.
Mr Justice Geoghegan yesterday heard legal argument from Mr Paul Gallagher SC, for the Minister, and Mr Eoin McGonigal SC and Mr Donal O'Donnell SC, for the GRA.
Last week, when the High Court granted the Minister a temporary restraint on the election process, Mr McGonigal said his clients undertook to put the counting of votes on hold.
Mr Ferry yesterday said he believed the Minister had contravened an official understanding between the parties on who would represent whom and despite the clear terms of the agreement had encouraged the Garda Federation to act independently of the GRA.
He said that in previous unsuccessful High Court proceedings against the GRA by the federation, formed after a split by disaffected members, the Minister discharged the federation's £90,000 legal costs bill by granting a loan to certain members of the federation.
He said he understood that the Minister and the federation had an agreement whereby the federation would be liable for the repayment of the loan.
"I find it extraordinary that the Minister paid such a substantial sum from public funds to assist individual gardai who engaged in a campaign of opposition to, the GRA's agreement on a pensions package with her Department."
Mr Ferry told the court that in February 1994, when agreement was reached with the Department on pensionable rights regarding allowances and the GRA had arranged to ballot members on acceptance, controversy arose within the central executive committee.
Four executive members had unsuccessfully tried to prevent the ballot in a High Court challenge The GRA members accepted the package in the following ballot and the four executive members were suspended.
In May 1994 some disaffected members illegally picketed the association's conference in Galway. He said that in July 1994 the disaffected members formed the Garda Federation, in contravention of the law. He believed it was significant that no action had been taken by the Minister to enforce legislation.
The Minister has refused to recognise the federation to negotiate pay and conditions on behalf of its members but has nevertheless, consistently encouraged and fostered it to the detriment of the GRA," Mr Ferry claimed.
As a consequence of the dispute, he said, the executive members of four divisions, Louth/Meath; Cavan/Monaghan, Cork West and Tipperary were not attending meetings of the GRA but their members were still represented by the association.
He outlined attempts by the parties concerned to resolve matters and said the litigation had arisen because of the election which had been started on June 17th. Nominations had been invited by letter to all members and 306 uncontested nominations had been received by the closing date and these had been duly elected.
In the case of 21 districts, 106 nominations were contested and the association was issuing ballot papers when the Minister, without prior notice, made her order deferring the elections.
"I believe it was an unprecedented and extraordinary step for the Minister to take," Mr Ferry told the court. "It is the first occasion the Minister has sought to make regulations for the association without its consent."
Mr Ferry said the association had been anxious to minimise confrontation. It had sought to complete the election while starting court proceedings to secure the court's decision on the Minister's order.
The Minister had, without any communication to the association, applied to the court for an injunction restraining the completion of the election, he said.
Replying to allegations of fostering or encouraging the Gardai Federation, the Minister said in an affidavit that she had made an interest free loan of £90,800 to the federation to be repaid within a specified period.
The loan was made because she felt the unresolved legal costs issue might hinder an arbitration process. It had been made in the context of the GRA pursuing the four members of the federations held liable for the legal costs, including having their names published in Stubbs Gazette and notices having been issued to them from the Dublin City and County Sheriffs demanding payment of the money.
She had considered the ending of the controversy within the GRA of such importance that it was incumbent on her and the Department to meet the parties in an effort to find a resolution. The Minister had met members of the federation and disaffected members of the GRA in an effort to find a resolution to the controversy, in so far as it related to issues of representation only and not to issues of pay, pensions and conditions of service.
It was her reluctant conclusion that proposed legislation was the only means left to her to resolve the dispute.
Earlier the court had heard that disaffected members of the GRA had alleged lack of democracy within the association and, in particular, that there were undue levels of representation given to certain sections of the membership.
There had been numerous attempts to resolve the differences, supported by various ministers for justice, and on April 30th the Garda Siochana Bill had been published and had passed its second stage in the Dail on June 12th.
Under the Bill only one representative association will be recognised with the support of a majority of members, and it empowers the Minister to withdraw recognition. It provided for the appointment by the annual conference of five trustees and the fixing of standing orders before the a.g.m.
This and other provisions were aimed at increasing democracy in the association and at allaying concerns about undue levels of representation for certain divisions. Membership of the executive committee would increase from 26 to 30, 11 from Dublin and 19 from the rest of the State.