THE Government has been accused of "hiding" a review on the Garda because it would recommend an independent review of Garda pay and conditions.
The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) also said yesterday it suspects the report will be kept secret in the same way that another inquiry report into the force was in 1979.
The AGSI president, Mr John Durcan, pointed out yesterday that the report, which is the subject of disagreement within its committee of authors, was due to have been published by the end of last year.
He said: "The Government announced the establishment of the SMI (strategic management initiative) review in July, 1996, in the wake of the murders of Veronica Guerin and Jerry McCabe with the instruction that the report was to be ready by the end of the year.
"We feel that the Government is delaying publication because the SMI report will support the Garda case for a commission to examine basic pay which has fallen substantially behind other sectors in recent years.
"Indeed, an early draft of the report prepared by the Deloitte & Touche consultants explicitly recommended an independent review of pay and conditions to be carried out on a regular basis.
"A five month delay in publishing this report surely creates something of a mystery and we can only speculate that the document contains something which is unpalatable to the Government.
"Further delay will increase speculation that the Government is trying to manipulate the details of the report to suit itself. Is this report to go the same way as the Stokes Kennedy Crowley report of the 1970s which also contained unpalatable material to the Government of the day?"
The AGSI and the Garda Representative Association (GRA) are seeking the same exemption from the public service pay capping which the Government granted to nurses and teachers.