JUSTICE Minister Dermot Ahern says the speech Michael O’Boyce didn’t deliver at the Garda Representative Association (GRA) annual conference last Tuesday crossed the democratic line– yet conference delegates gave O’Boyce a standing ovation.

Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy insisted today that his cash-strapped rank-and-file will not be sacked if they cannot pay their mortgages.

RELATIONS between the country’s 11,600 rank and file gardaí and the Government have soured considerably after the Justice Minister refused to attend their annual conference.

Justice Minister Dermot Ahern today refused to attend a conference of Garda rank-and-file after discovering details of a planned verbal attack on his Government.

GARDAÍ will press ahead with their ballot on strike action despite stern warnings from Justice Minister Dermot Ahern.

THE Garda Representative Association (GRA) is to go ahead with plans for a ballot for industrial action despite a direct warning from Commissioner Fachtna Murphy that by doing so they face criminal prosecution.

Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy tonight warned rank-and-file officers they could face legal action if they opt for an all-out strike.

THE Irish Nurses Organisation last night became the latest public service trade union to vote in favour of a 24-hour strike on November 24 in protest at Government plans to cut jobs and pay in the December budget.

IMPACT trade union has become the first to confirm it wants a 24-hour strike by the country’s 310,000 public servants at the end of November in protest at Government plans to introduce an average of 6.5% pay cuts in the sector in the next budget.

TRADE unions and associations representing more than 100,000 public servants have reacted angrily to an alleged attempt to gag the military and prevent it from joining with an alliance fighting pay cuts proposed by the McCarthy report.

IT was a case of talking to the invisible man when the president of the organisation representing the country’s front-line gardaí addressed the Minister for Justice.

THERE has been a sharp rise in recent years in the cases of assault and obstructing gardaí and of resisting arrest.

NOTHING ever stays the same and work and management practices evolve relentlessly.

A contractor was paid more than €1,000 to replace three lightbulbs at a garda station, it was claimed today.

Many senior Garda officers are more driven by self-interest than serving the community, rank and file leaders claimed today.

The Garda Representative Association (GRA) is disappointed by the proposals made by the government today.

GARDAÍ have expressed concern at the sharp rise in the legal ownership of handguns in recent years.

GARDAÍ in Donegal did not have a mechanism to raise concerns about senior officers at the time of the scandals, the head of the largest Garda representative body has said.

THE majority of the country’s 1,328 Garda patrol cars are less powerful than some family saloons, and are incapable of pursuing dangerous criminals in high-speed chases, and not sturdy enough to protect their occupants if rammed by more powerful vehicles.

YOU would not have to be too cynical to empathise with yesterday’s suggestion that the timing of the publication of the Morris Tribunal’s sixth report was such that it got less attention than was warranted.

THE Garda Ombudsman Commission has been accused of potentially contaminating vital evidence that was to be used in connection with a number of crime investigations in Limerick.

The incoming president of the Garda Representative Association (GRA), Michael O’Boyce, launched a blistering and emotive attack on the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) at the GRA’s annual conference in Carlow yesterday.

The Garda Ombudsman Commission tonight rubbished claims its investigators had potentially contaminated evidence during searches of a garda station in Limerick.

DISCIPLINE in the gardaí has been lost, the Morris Tribunal has concluded.

Gardaí have said that they will protest today over plans by the Government to introduce a Garda Reserve Force, with very little training.

GARDAÍ are increasingly concerned about the criminalisation of officers prosecuted for actions carried out in the course of their duties.

GARDA morale has been shattered by the interim Morris Report into allegations of misconduct in the Donegal division, a garda association has said.

The Garda Representative Association says a forum should be set up to map out the future of the Garda Siochana, in light of recent scandals.

Three gardai posted near the border with Northern Ireland have abandoned their police station which they claim is in a state of ‘‘terrible disrepair’’, it emerged today.