GRA conference: No court in the country will convict a garda of breaking the law when they refuse to co-operate with the planned Garda reserve, the Garda Representative Association (GRA) has said.
GRA president Dermot O'Donnell said the matter was an industrial relations issue and it was "unhelpful" for Minister for Justice Michael McDowell to refer to gardaí who do not co-operate with the reserve as law-breakers.
"I don't believe we were ever contracted to work alongside untrained people," he said at the opening in Galway of the GRA's three-day annual conference.
"And I don't believe any court would convict a garda of breaking the law. Anybody who is thinking in those terms is jumping ahead of themselves," he said. Reservists would only be trained for 56 hours. This would diminish, not enhance, the professionalism of the force.
His organisation was willing to back any of its members in a test case in the courts as part of the GRA's fight against the implementation of the reserve.
Mr O'Donnell said Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy had already stated the row over the reserve was an industrial relations issue. The GRA fully agreed with him.
Mr O'Donnell believed that under the Health and Safety Act all employees were legally obliged not to put themselves in any situation where their safety was at risk. Working with reservists would compromise the safety of his members.
He said the executive of the GRA was "totally opposed" to the reserve force and would not co-operate with it. They now wanted to hear from "the grassroots". The GRA represents almost 10,000 rank and file gardaí who make up the bulk of the 12,500-strong force.
GRA vice-president John Egan said he believed a motion at conference calling on delegates to reject the reserve force would be comfortably passed. He said four Progressive Democrat TDs would lose their seats at the next election because of public opposition to Mr McDowell's policy.
In a break with tradition Mr McDowell has not been invited to address delegates this year. However, he will attend a function at the conference tonight.