Protest plans include Tour de France dates

The association representing more than 8,000 gardai is due to vote today on protest plans which include disrupting the Tour de France. The prospect of "national days of protest" during the Tour de France and a maximum of two days' notice for any protest were raised at the Garda Representative Association (GRA) annual conference yesterday.

The Cork conference was dominated by pay, and delegates are due to vote on proposals today. The GRA president, Mr John Healy, said the association's members "are saying that if it takes until hell freezes over we're not settling this until we get a just offer".

Mr Healy asked the 156 delegates to consider the following proposals: that gardai would give "no more than 48 hours' notice" of any protest action; that the association would consider not asking probationary gardai to remain outside the protest. On May 1st probationary gardai were used to replace those who phoned in sick.

The dates relating to the Tour de France, July 11th, 12th and 13th, should be considered for national days of protest, Mr Healy said. A ban on voluntary overtime and any other suggestions from delegates will be considered today.

"Most objective people understand our position on pay. We are between £40 and £140 a week behind where we were 20 years ago," Mr Healy said.

Gardai were not part of national wage agreements, he added, and the only way to address the issue was to establish a police pay negotiation body "that will recognise policemen for the job they do".

Earlier both outgoing leaders, the president, Mr Healy, and vice-president, Mr Michael Kirby, were re-elected for a further two years.

Mr Healy said the re-elections were an endorsement of the job they had done and what the GRA stood for. It was also a "clear message to the Minister for Justice and the Department of Justice", he said.

In his campaign speech for the president's post, Mr Frank Gunne, a former member of the breakaway Garda Federation, said there was a fear that the "behaviour of the last few weeks" was "a drift back towards the type of behaviour that caused the split in the first place". Mr Gunne was defeated by 115 votes to 36.

Following his re-election, Mr Healy said the association would "address future change after our claim for a pay review is settled". He said there was a "united and unified membership" that would move forward together. He was given a standing ovation at the end of his speech.