The Taoiseach has been positively conciliatory in his messages to the gardai in the current pay dispute. His coded words make it clear that there is money on the table. The Commissioner has stated that there is, in reality, little dividing the two sides. The Minister and the officials at the Department of Justice stand ready to meet the gardai in negotiation. It therefore betokens an extraordinary quality of irresponsibility for the Garda Representative Association (GRA) to press ahead with further withdrawals of service under the guise of the so-called "blue-flu".
It is clear that the State does not want confrontation with the rank and file of the national police service. But there are far bigger stakes here than the contentment of police officers who believe that they should now be allowed to exceed the terms of a deal they willingly entered into a short time ago. The social partnership which underpins our economic well-being will possibly be placed in jeopardy if the guards are given the exceptional treatment they demand. That cannot be. If it means that the community has to get by without normal police services for a time, that may be a price which has to be paid.
The gardai seem to have set themselves on an irrevocable course of confrontation. They are a powerful institution but they cannot be allowed to bully - or be seen to bully - the Government and they of all people should understand that. They do not seem to be willing to build upon the sympathy which has been expressed for their case and to enter into negotiations with an eye to the productivity option which the Government has advanced as a way of avoiding a head-on clash. Indeed, they do not seem to understand the modalities of normal negotiation. It is as if they seek surrender by the State.
They also seem oblivious - uncaring even - to the manner in which their industrial action sullies the proud public service tradition of the force. Indeed, the whole nature of their protest - the so-called `blue-flu' - will stick in the craw of all of those who have been proud to serve as members. The `blue-flu', where members are encouraged to ring in sick, is nothing less than a collective lie; it is a sorry departure from the concepts of duty and truth which should form the lifeblood of any Garda organisation. Remarkably the GRA - as the security correspondent of this newspaper has reported - is escalating its industrial action at a time when the organisation is without a general secretary and when there is a new, inexperienced central executive committee in place. It seems clear that the GRA's unyielding - even bloodyminded - approach is not unrelated to personal rivalries and the battle to buttress personal fiefdoms within the organisation.
It is time for ordinary members of the GRA to call a halt to this kind of industrial vandalism. The outline basis for a pay and productivity agreement which could deliver quite substantial increases for members of the force is already in situ. Members of the GRA face a stark choice between this pay deal and another round of industrial action which can only inflict long-term damage on the reputation of the force.