Michael McDowell has a winning record in confrontations with the forces of the law, writes Conor Lally
Minister for Justice Michael McDowell was at loggerheads with the Prison Officers' Association (POA) last April. The officers had just rejected a remuneration package aimed at greatly reducing the annual €60 million overtime budget within the prison service.
Speaking to the media at the time, Mr McDowell was in characteristically uncompromising form. "You can't beat City Hall and on this one there will be no defeat of City Hall," he told the POA.
Less than five months later the bitter three-year overtime dispute was over. Prison officers agreed to accept higher salaries in exchange for working annualised hours. Huge overtime payments are no more.
Now that Mr McDowell has turned his attention to creating a Garda Reserve of part-time police officers, few would bet that anybody but City Hall will win this one.
Under the current plans it is envisaged that the reserve force will number 4,000 at full strength. The full-time force will number 14,000 by the end of this year. Some 900 reservists are to begin operating in September. They will work for around four hours per week. They will not be paid for their time but will receive payments for out-of-pocket expenses.
They will wear Garda uniforms and carry batons, but not guns. They will have the same powers as permanent gardaí but not the power of arrest when off duty. They will operate only under the supervision of permanent members.
Mr McDowell believes reservists can be deployed on a range of high-visibility duties such as patrolling on foot and in vehicles in urban areas and policing major sporting and other public events.
The reservists could, in theory, also be deployed in areas of policing that appear chronically under-resourced at present, road safety being a case in point. And few communities beset with anti-social and public order issues, such as teenage drinking, would decline an offer of increased patrols manned in part by reservists.
In the face of major criticism from Garda staff representative associations, Mr McDowell has pointed to the success of part-time officers in the UK, where the Special Constabulary dates back 175 years, to demonstrate the benefits of his scheme.
According to the UK Home Office. the Special Constabulary numbers between 12,000 and 14,000 across 43 police forces. This represents between 8.5 per cent and 10 per cent of the 140,000 permanent full-time members.
Ninety-six per cent of UK members have day jobs. The typical age profile is between 35 and 54 years, of which 70 per cent are male. Between 10 and 20 per cent of part-time members go on to take up full-time policing posts.
Numbers in the Special Constabulary have been in decline since the second World War. The falloff has been most acute in the last decade. However, the Special Constabulary has proved very successful in integrating members of ethnic communities into policing.
In London 25 per cent of the Special Constabulary come from ethnic minority communities, compared with 7 per cent in the regular full-time force. Part-time officers are used for the most part to carry out high-visibility patrols and provide cover at major public and sporting events. They were also successfully deployed in the immediate aftermath of the London bombings last July.
In this jurisdiction, the reserve force is provided for by the Garda Síochána Act, 2005, which was enacted last summer. The Act received the backing of most members of the Oireachtas.
However, the Garda Representative Association (GRA) and Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) have outlined their complete opposition to the plans. Not only do they object to the detail of the reserve force, they are against its very existence.
They have criticised the lack of public debate on the initiative and Mr McDowell's failure to consult them. Sources in both organisations have told The Irish Times that the Minister had assured them that the provisions of the Garda Síochána Act, 2005, relating to the reserve force were intended to enable future governments, as opposed to the current one, to establish a reserve force.
In July 2003, when announcing the detail of the Garda Síochána Bill, Mr McDowell said of the reserve provisions: "I am emphasising that this is purely an enabling provision. If I am putting down the framework for policing services in Ireland for the next half-century, I think it 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."
The GRA and AGSI argue that the goalposts have now been moved by Mr McDowell, and their opportunity to oppose plans for a reserve force has been lost. They believe the establishment of a reserve force will detract from and devalue the work of their members.
The associations also fear their members will be forced to "baby-sit" reservists and "mop up" after botched arrests and other mishaps.
They say the continuous learning programmes within An Garda Síochána, which are run at divisional headquarters, are already overloaded in meeting the needs of full-time members and will not be able to undertake training reservists, as is envisaged.
Members of the force must also fear that existing levels of overtime pay will be trimmed considerably when reservists come on stream.
But the associations say their predominant concern is Mr McDowell's failure to consult them in any way.
The Minister's relations with the prison officers have still not recovered. But Mr McDowell won the day. And it is hard to argue with a winner.
Mr McDowell has told gardaí, sergeants and inspectors that he and the Taoiseach expect members of the force to uphold the law of the land.
A standoff is looming. However much it may irritate members of An Garda Síochána, the smart money is on City Hall.