REACTION:FIANNA FÁIL backbench TD Niall Collins said yesterday that outgoing president of the Garda Representative Association,Michael O'Boyce should resign from the Garda or failing that he should be removed by the Garda Commissioner.
“He has crossed the line and entered into the political arena and he has clearly breached a fundamental condition of his employment as a member of An Garda Síochána,” he said.
“I mean, for me to hear a member of An Garda Síochána accuse a sovereign Government of robbery, corruption and treason, and this coming from a member of An Garda Síochána who are the agents of the State to investigate and prosecute these types of crimes, it’s just clearly not sustainable.”
Speaking last night, Mr Ahern said the Garda conference was not like a teachers’ or a nurses’ conference. “These are the custodians of the laws. I mean, if this was to happen in the Army, it would be regarded as mutiny.”
Mr O’Boyce was reflecting a build-up of “frustration” in the force which led Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern to cancel his address to the conference, the body’s general secretary PJ Stone said yesterday. He was defending remarks in the speech due to be delivered by GRA president Michael O’Boyce at the organisation’s conference.
In his script, Mr O’Boyce claimed the Government had been “corrupted” and that Fianna Fáil had been “bought” by developers and bankers.
The association president decided not to deliver the speech because the Minister was not present to defend the allegations.
Mr Stone said calls for Mr O’Boyce’s resignation were unfair because they confused his role as a representative of members of An Garda Síochána with his role as a member of the force.
“What you are seeing here is a build-up of frustration,” Mr Stone said.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Pat Kenny programme he said: “You are seeing anger and you are seeing disillusionment. Mr O’Boyce was merely reiterating the views of members of the Garda Síochána and he was doing it in his representative role.”