SINCE THE beginning of the year the Government has tried to unravel the traditional relationship with gardaí and has made five consecutive attacks on pay, the vice-president of the Garda Representative Association (GRA) said last night.
Speaking at the final regional meeting of the new alliance of frontline public service staff against proposed cuts in pay and allowances, which was held in Dublin, Damien McCarthy said his organisation had been pushed into a corner.
He said that the 11,600 members of the GRA were making their voices heard through the frontline alliance because it was not a trade union and members were subject to the Garda Síochána Act.
A decision now had to be taken as to what the alliance’s next action would be.
However, he said that it would be “honest action”.
“We have the moral authority and the unfairness and inequity of the situation will demand that we stand resolute. Our relationship with the State is not a one-way street,” he said.
More than 1,300 frontline public servants who provide round-the-clock services, including gardaí, nurses and prison officers, attended the meeting last night in the Helix theatre.
Organisers said that about 5,000 public service staff had attended three other regional meetings over the last fortnight.
Mr McCarthy said that gardaí had a relationship with the State based on patriotism and loyalty.
“Since 1922 we have maintained our pledge to the Irish people. When members are attested they are mindful of the commitment they are making and the implications this has for their life. They take this oath freely, with the understanding that the State is making a similar commitment to them in return.
“I made a decision to choose a certain career path in the public service. I chose to become a garda during an era of unprecedented wealth in this country.
“I was never under the impression that the state of the economy would dictate my rate of pay. No other western police force has cut the pay of its officers, ever,” he said.
Mr McCarthy said that the majority of his members, over 60 per cent, were recruited in the last 10 years and had junior service.
He said that senior members of the force were “withdrawing their labour in the only way they legally can – by taking retirement when the option becomes available to them”.
“We have stayed within the law and abided by the strict Garda Code. But the Government persists in cutting garda pay, breaching all agreements ever made with members of garda rank.
“The rulebook has gone, regrettably with the assistance of our own management. This Government has repeatedly refused to meet with the Garda Representative Association and has denied us access to any industrial relations mechanism.
“They have pushed us into a corner,” he said.
The general secretary of the Irish Nurses Organisation, Liam Doran, said that where it was possible affiliated unions would be commencing ballots for industrial action in defence of services and conditions.
The general secretary of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors, Joe Dirwan, said that allowances targeted in the recent McCarthy report could result in cutbacks of up to one-third in pay for gardaí.
“Let me make one thing clear. We in the public service have already suffered a pay cut in the order of 12.5 per cent, all things considered. We will not take any more,” he said.
Seamus Murphy of the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) said that if the McCarty proposals were implemented, public servants would revert to pre-1970s terms and conditions.
The Alliance is to meet political parties over the coming weeks.