The Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, has warned Garda representative associations that a campaign against the proposed Garda reserve could backfire on them.
The Minister was speaking in northwest England where he and the Garda Commissioner, Noel Conroy, are meeting police reservists and are attending a conference of the special constabulary in Chester.
Mr McDowell said a Garda reserve is now enshrined in law and that that non-co-operation is not an option for gardaí members and they must uphold the law.
Mr McDowell and Mr Conroy are in Chester to speak to senior officers at a conference on reservist policing and see how the part time policemen integrate with full time police officers.
They have been told by the Chief constable that both work extremely well together and both are policemen with the same powers once they put on the uniform.
However, Mr McDowell and Mr Conroy have been warned that the reservists could not work without the co-operation of the regular police force.
Mr McDowell has also warned the GRA and the AGSI that those who apply to become reservists are good people with an interest in policing their own communities and that a campaign against such good people would not be popular and could be self-destructive.
The Garda commissioner says the legislators have now legislated for a reserve, which must be set up, and that he and Garda management are in favour of it and believe it would be good for the gardaí.
