GRA dismisses former dissident from pay negotiating team

The Garda Representative Association (GRA) has dismissed from its pay negotiating team one of its former dissident members who…

The Garda Representative Association (GRA) has dismissed from its pay negotiating team one of its former dissident members who was included on the team as part of the agreement to unite the organisation and a breakaway group.

Garda Colm Dempsey from Dundalk was told this week he was being dismissed from the negotiating team because he had not been elected to the 26-member GRA central executive committee.

"I consider this to be very damaging to me," he said. "My contribution has apparently counted for nothing. I have been on the team since the start of the year and I had assumed I would be on the team until the talks were concluded.

"I am also concerned because I am the only full-time operational uniformed member on the team. I was also the junior member and spoke from the vantage point of the younger members of the force. I could examine the implications [of pay offers] from that particular standpoint."

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Garda Dempsey was vice-president of the Garda Federation, the dissident organisation of about 2,500 members which split from the GRA in a dispute over the GRA's initial settlement of the pay deal under the PCW.

The Garda Federation and GRA finally settled their differences at the end of last year, and most federation members, headed by the federation president, Garda Frank Gunn, and Garda Dempsey, rejoined the GRA. Part of the agreement was that the two men would be on the GRA pay negotiation team. Now Garda Gunn is the sole ex-federation negotiator.

Also as part of the settlement the GRA was reconstituted and elections held to a new central executive. Garda Dempsey failed to secure election in the Louth-Meath division.

It is expected the GRA and Department of Justice negotiators will quickly complete the pay deal, which is understood to have been largely agreed between the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the GRA a week ago. The 13.5 per cent pay offer is very similar to that given to prison officers a year ago.

Although details have not been officially released, it is understood the gardai are being offered a 5.5 per cent pay increase, a 4.5 per cent productivity-related increase and a 3.5 per cent incremental increase.

The GRA called off its industrial action after the offer, which is likely to prove more attractive to gardai with long service than to younger, urban-based officers. It is understood the GRA is currently negotiating for payment of a lump-sum, two-year back payment, which is likely to appease the younger gardai.