Middle level Gardai have revealed that they are considering taking industrial action in an effort to force through proposals that will see all Gardai officially recognised as part of a union.
There threat of action amongst Garda members, comes after the Association of Garda Sargents and Inspectors met the Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan on Monday.
During the meeting which also focused on the improvement of mental health services for all Garda officers, the ASGI told the justice minister the prospect of action will be made more likely unless the Government officially recognises Garda officials as of a trade union.
The ASGI say the Government’s current laws which currently do not allow for strike action amongst the Gardai, are discriminatory and they are not inline with current EU social rights laws.
Mr Flanagan was also informed that there are currently not enough supervisors in place to deal with the volume of Gardai being recruited.
The ASGI say they require at least 160 Garda Sargents in order to deal with supervision duties over existing and new Garda recruits.
They also warned that failure to introduce the new Sargents could lead to further malptractice which was exposed by the O’Higgins commission.