Files on union bans for gardaí to be released

THE information commissioner Emily O’Reilly has ordered the Department of Justice to release documentation to a Garda representative body on why it is refusing to allow it to be affiliated to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.

The exclusion of Garda groups, the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) and the Garda Representative Association (GRA) from trade union recognition has been a bone of contention for a number of years and both organisations have actively sought the right to join the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.

The AGSI made a request to the department on November 26, 2008 for various records concerning the minister’s refusal of permission for the association to affiliate to ICTU.