The Garda Representative Association has said it will continue with its leadership elections in the coming weeks, despite an order from the Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, requiring them to be deferred until next year.
The Minister obtained Cabinet approval this week to make an order deferring the elections until March, 1997.
She said this would bring the elections into line with the provisions of new legislation concerning garda associations, which is currently at committee stage in the Dail.
The GRA said the Minister had "no right to interfere in an election process in which the GRA was obliged to embark" and it was taking legal advice on the matter.