The President of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) claimed tonight that the Minister for Justice is planning to "undermine" the profession and to create a "second-rate" police force.
Speaking at an AGSI meeting in Cork this evening, Mr Joe Dirwan said Mr McDowell's proposal to create a garda reserve was designed "to show that our job can be done by an unpaid volunteer with minimal training who does not have to live under any of the restrictive covenants that we do."
Mr Dirwan claimed that by telling the garda staff associations that the measure was "enabling legislation only" and that it would not be brought into effect in the lifetime of this Government the Minister was attempting to introduce the measure "in an underhand fashion."
He claimed that in July 2003, when announcing the detail of the Garda Síochána Bill, Mr McDowell said: "I am emphasising that this is a purely an enabling provision. If I am putting down a framework for policing services in Ireland for the next half-century, I think I would be remiss of me not to provide some basis for a statutory creation of a Garda Reserve should the Government and the parliament decide that that is the sensible thing to do."
Mr Dirwan said "I find it hard to control my anger when I think about what the Minister is proposing. It is a direct attack on the force which has been in the front line of defending this State since its inception in 1922."
"Here we have a Minister for Justice proposing to hand full police powers to untrained, volunteer citizens who will be able to walk away when things get tough and who will have no loyalty to the service or to you," he added.