Senior gardaí have voted to co-operate with the Garda Reserve as part of a pay deal, reports said today.
The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI), which represents 2,200 members, will now work with the new, part-time reserve force that comes into operation this month.
Both the AGSI and the body representing rank-and-file gardaí, the GRA, had previously said they would not support the Garda Reserve and that their members would refuse to co-operate with the new recruits.
The first 37 members of the reserve have been trained at the Garda training college in Templemore and will be deployed at Garda stations in Galway, Dublin and Cork as part of their training from tonight.
The GRA is taking a ballot on whether to co-operate with the reserve as part of the pay deal, and a result is expected later this month.
A spokesman for the AGSI was not immediately available for comment.