The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has again rebuffed Garda pay demands, warning that concession of the Garda Representative Association's demand "would unravel the entire negotiations of the Programme for Competitiveness and Work".
He said that the Government would not be coerced into jeopardising all that had been achieved with the social partners by any sectional interest. He was speaking at the annual conference of the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed in Dublin yesterday.
Concessions to the gardai would jeopardise our economic success, the Minister for Finance warned last night. Speaking in Brussels, Mr McCreevy also said any garda who called in sick yesterday was telling a "flat lie".
"I am very disappointed that the gardai have decided to go sick; we all know that 99 per cent of them are as hale and hearty as anyone else.
"It is very bad in principle for the upholders of law and order to avail themselves of a plain lie," he said. He added, however, that they would be paid for their sick day.
There were very high levels of support among the 8,400 officers of garda rank for the 24-hour withdrawal of labour which ended at 6 a.m. this morning. However, normal policing services were maintained in most parts of the State by the widespread use of overtime for sergeants and the use of up to 1,000 student and probationer gardai. Gardai reported for duty at the Dail and Government Buildings yesterday and there was no need to call in help from the Army.
The Garda Press Office said that 79.02 per cent of gardai failed to report for duty but would not say if this included probationer officers who do not belong to a staff association.
Garda management ensured that those officers on duty were used, where possible, to patrol and there was no significant absence of police on the streets. At 3.30 p.m. on O'Connell Street, Dublin, there were eight officers on patrol, seven of them probationers and two senior officers. Many stations outside Dublin reported up to 100 per cent support for the action. In Dublin levels of support varied. The GRA yesterday said it held the Government "responsible for today's action by our members, decent hard-working gardai who have been pushed into a corner and left with no other option".
The GRA acting general secretary, Mr P. J. Stone, added: "The Government must face reality in this situation. A serious injustice and now a crisis has arisen to which a resolution must be found."
It has been learned that the GRA will discuss timing their next one-day "strike" to coincide with the arrival of the Tour de France in Ireland in July unless there is a settlement of their pay claim, when it meets for its annual conference in two weeks' time.