REPRESENTATIVES of five Garda divisions have issued statements dissociating themselves from the criticism levelled at the Minister for Justice by the general secretary of the Garda Representative Association, Mr John Ferry.
The GRA division in Galway West, which has been seen as being loyal to Mr Ferry's leadership, yesterday joined four other dissenting divisions in criticising Mr Ferry's remarks about Mrs Owen.
A motion was passed at the Galway West GRA annual meeting yesterday stating that members of the division "wished to dissociate themselves from the views expressed by the general secretary in RTE television/radio interviews on Monday, insofar as those comments related to the Minister for Justice".
The division's representative on the GRA's central executive committee, Garda James Cuddy, confirmed it would be tabling motions of censure in relation to Mr Ferry, which are due to go before the committee in December, and possibly the GRA's annual conference next year.
He declined, however, to indicate the exact wording of the motions relating to Mr Ferry, but it is understood from other sources they include a motion of no confidence.
The GRA branch members felt that Mr Ferry's comments "should not have been personalised and brought into the political arena", Garda Cuddy said. The dispute followed the publication of an editorial in the Garda Review strongly criticising the Minister.
The vote was in relation to the personalised comments criticising Mrs Owen's handling of the Judge Dominic Lynch delisting affair, he said.
The Galway West branch had, however, agreed with the comments in relation to Garda concern that anybody, who had been released and rearrested, might be freed by the courts as a consequence of the affair. Particular concern was expressed that those charged in relation to the death of Det Garda Jerry McCabe might be freed he said.
A spokesman for four other Garda divisions, Louth Meath, Cavan Monaghan, Tipperary and Cork West, issued a statement saying: "We wish to publicly dissociate ourselves from the editorial in the Garda Review and comments by the general secretary, Mr Ferry, on radio and television. We would also like to ask whether the approval of the central executive committee or the editorial board of the Garda Review was given before this outburst."
These four divisions withdrew their representative from the GRA central executive two years ago. The Garda Federation, which represents about 2,500 officers mainly in Dublin, and who broke away from the GRA in July 1994, also described Mr Ferry's comments as "naked politicking" and an embarrassment to most gardai.