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Gardaí Ordered to Remove Reserve Campaign Posters
23 February 2006
Garda management has issued instructions
to the Garda staff associations and its representatives that all posters informing members of forthcoming meetings on the Garda Reserve in Cork, Portlaoise and Dublin. Representatives of the both the
GRA and AGSI were told an internal Garda rule from the 1970s requires permission for any posters to be placed in Garda buildings. This is the first time the rule has been enforced. PJ Stone, General
Secretary, speaking after meeting with senior management earlier today said no other staff association would be denied the right to inform their members of any forthcoming meeting in this
manner. "No other representative body would have to put up with this kind of shenanigans," Mr Stone asked, "and what makes this all the more galling is we are supposed to be
independent of the political establishment. Yet the motive for issuing this edict is quite clearly politically motivated. We are being denied the right to inform our members of matters that are of
the utmost importance to their careers. We are a statutory body set up to represent Gardai in all matters affecting their welfare and efficiency and these kind of antics from our own management are
simply not acceptable."
He went on to say it was also made clear to the representative bodies at today's meeting that the proposal to set up the reserve force came from the government
via the Dept of Justice. Mr Stone called on the Michael McDowell to publish all correspondence between the Department and Garda management on the matter in order to establish who proposed the idea
initially. "The Garda Commissioner informed us this morning that senior management were committed to implementing government policy and abiding by the law in respect of the Garda Reserve.
This statement is vastly different from what Michael McDowell has repeatedly said in that it was the Commissioner who proposed the Reserve. They are at odds with one another on what we believe is an
important issue - the veracity of the Minister's statements on the topic."
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