Opposition has arisen among Dublin gardai to the proposal that members of the breakaway Garda Federation should now rejoin the official garda staff association, the Garda Representative Association (GRA). A group of founding members of the federation are lobbying for a No vote in a ballot on dissolving their organisation, with the members returning to the GRA.
Up to last week, it had been thought that the two bodies would reunite, ending the three-year internal dispute. Now there is a stand by Dublin gardai against rejoining the GRA without the issues that provoked the dispute being resolved.
Ballot papers were sent out to the 2,500 members of the Garda Federation yesterday, to be returned by October 10th. There must be a two-thirds majority for re-amalgamation before the federation can be dissolved.
However, a letter circulated to Dublin stations and signed by six founding members of the federation yesterday called for a No vote. They say the pay issue which caused the dispute has not been resolved and Dublin gardai will still be under-represented.
The dissenting group yesterday challenged a statement by the ICTU general secretary, Mr Peter Cassells, in a letter to gardai, that 86 per cent of the federation had already endorsed the reamalgamation in a previous ballot.
A spokesman for Mr Cassells yesterday said the previous ballot had been "overwhelming" in support of re-amalgamation. "Those people who did not vote were making their own statement."
There is also a dispute over the continued reference in pro-amalgamation literature from the federation and the ICTU to its members joining what they refer to as the "United Association".
The dissenters said yesterday that there is no such association; members would be rejoining the GRA. The acting GRA general secretary, Mr P.J. Stone, yesterday confirmed there had been no change to the name of his association.
The pro-amalgamation element hopes that if the federation is dissolved by November, there will be fresh GRA elections for its central executive early next year.