DISSENTING members of the dispute ridden Garda Representative Association (GRA) have called for the reopening of negotiations before its two year old internal strife turns into a highly expensive court case.
"In their first public statement since breaking away from the GRA, the representatives of four rural Garda divisions with about 1,000 members have called on the GRA not to spend members' money on an impending High Court challenge to the Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen.
The four divisions have remained a largely silent element of the dispute. They broke away from the GRA almost two years ago but have not joined the 2,500 largely Dublin based dissident gardai who have formed the Garda Federation.
The representatives of the four divisions said there was already, deep concern among their members that they had fallen behind other areas of the public service in pay negotiations.
They accused the GRA leadership of "going down the road of expensive litigation in an effort to prevent the Minister for Justice putting forward proposals, by way of legislation, to end this long running and divisive dispute
They said that "instead of spending members contributions on, lengthy and costly court actions, which will prolong the dispute, the GRA should endeavour to resolve it by entering into immediate and meaningful dialogue with all the parties involved, in keeping with the wishes of the vast majority of members of Garda rank".
There was little sign yesterday that the GRA would heed such calls, however. In a statement issued at the weekend, the GRA leadership reiterated its preparedness to "take whatever steps are necessary" to resist what they described as the Minister's "interference in our internal affairs".
The group accused the Minister of being "undemocratic, dictatorial and unconstitutional". It "condemned" her proposal to reconstitute the GRA so that it could again represent all 500 members of garda rank, and accused her of "unprecedented, unjustified, unwarranted and an outrageous intrusion into the internal affairs of our association".
The dispute has persisted despite at least six attempts at a negotiated settlement and a number of High Court cases. The Minister's legislation to create a single new staff association is still before the Dail. This will, effectively, be challenged in a case due to come before the High Court before the end of the year.