Gerald Nash (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Members will be aware that the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors, AGSI, is having its annual conference. Serious concerns have been expressed by that body about the Government's foot dragging over responding to a landmark Council of Europe decision a couple of years ago relating to trade union rights for the AGSI, a right that should and could be very easily applied not just to representative bodies of members of An Garda Síochána but also to representative bodies representing the interests of members of the Defence Forces.

This issue has been raised time and again by Senator Craughwell and I. The Minister for Justice and Equality has provided the AGSI and other analogous bodies with a certain degree of limited access to the WRC and the Labour Court but that is to miss the point. In its landmark decision, the Council of Europe made it very clear that there was no reason in international law why full trade union and collective bargaining rights should be denied to organisations like the AGSI.

The idea that providing full trade union and collective bargaining rights to an organisation like the AGSI would jeopardise the security of the State is entirely bogus. The reality across Europe is that there is a trend towards awarding the very fundamental rights to be an active member of a trade union and to be represented by one to members of police and defence forces but those rights are being denied to rank and file and more senior members of An Garda Síochána and members of the Defence Forces.

It is important that this House works to vindicate those rights that are enshrined in international law. It is extremely disappointing that yet again, a Minister for Justice and Equality attends the AGSI conference and the foot dragging on this important issue continues. I want to put my concerns on the record and I urge everybody in this House to very clearly support those very basic and fundamental rights that should be protected and vindicated for members of our police force and the Defence Forces because those rights are not being vindicated as it currently stands.