THE Minister for Justice has said she will abolish the Garda Representative Association if it does not accept reforms currently being drafted.
Announcing details of the proposed legislation, Mrs Owen said if GRA failed to implement the changes, it would no longer be recognised as representing gardai.
But the GRA said yesterday it would resist one of the Bill's central reforms. Its assistant general secretary, Mr Tony Hand, said planned changes to the GRA voting system would cause "untold problems" but "we could live with the rest of it", he added.
The GRA doubted the Minister could abolish the organisation and it would be taking legal advice on the issue.
Meanwhile, the rival Garda Federation welcomed the proposed voting system reforms. We're pleased to see she had addressed the democratic deficit," a federation spokesman said. Both organisations will meet this week and respond more fully to the proposals.
The legislation contains many elements of a report on reforming the GRA drawn up for the Government by Mr Kieran Mulvey in October 1994. Mr Mulvey, a former trade union figure and now chief executive of the Labour Relations Commission, was called on to arbitrate in a dispute arising out of a seven year row within the GRA. This row led to the disruption of the 1994 annual conference and the birth of the Garda Federation. The GRA rejected Mr Mulvey's report.
The split in the association is attributed to Dublin members who believed the GRA executive did not fully represent their interests. Today the federation has about 2,000 members the GRA 6,000.
In her statement, Mrs Owen said the legislation was needed because "the Government cannot tolerate a situation where thousands of gardai have dissociated themselves from their representative association and are in a position where they are, in effect, without representation in regard to their pay and conditions of service.
"Not only are the interests of individual gardai not being properly served while this dispute continues but the image of the force as a whole is in danger of being seriously eroded."
The Bill "is designed to ensure that any association representing members at Garda rank operates on a basis of fairness and equity. The Bill therefore should bring to an end the problems caused by the divisions which have rent the GRA in recent years and which have resulted in a substantial number of gardai with drawing their support from their representative body."
The Minister added that "the problems could and should have been solved by agreement among the various groupings involved".
Resolution by discussion, mediation and arbitration had failed and she was "forced regrettably to the conclusion that legislation is now the only option".
The key change affects the functioning of the GRA's central executive committee. At present each member has the same voting power, regardless of how many gardai that member represents.
"This means that a committee member representing as few as 60 gardai has the same voting strength as a member representing as many as 786 gardai," the Minister said. "The Bill proposes to make voting more representative by providing that each committee member will have one vote for every to gardai actually represented by the member."
This would cause "untold problems" if it went ahead, said Mr Hand, as "Cork and Dublin could outvote the other 24 counties on the basis of numerical strength". But if the voting changes were dropped, the legislation would be "much more palatable."
"In addition, the Bill will require only one representative body for any Garda rank. This must have sufficient support to satisfy the Minister that, in matters which concern the rank as a whole, it can speak on behalf of the rank and make agreements on behalf of the rank as a whole".
Posts of general secretary, deputy general secretary and assistant general secretary and the conditions of appointment would have to be approved at the GRA's next annual conference. If not approved by conference the appointments "will cease to have effect", the Minister said.
Those appointed would not be members of the central executive committee they could attend meetings but would have no vote.
Mr Hand said this did no more than restate the existing position.
The Minister also proposes an independent committee to review the decisions to discipline former members of the GRA which have "exacerbated the problems involving the association". She hoped the Bill would encourage members who have left the GRA to rejoin.