Rank and file gardaí have rejected findings in a recent report into alcohol testing checkpoints that they falsified alcohol breath tests.

The GRA, which represents over 10,000 gardaí, has blamed management for requiring the data and using it to improve their chances of promotion.

Gardaí say they will not be "scapegoated" for the falsified breath tests.

The GRA said today that no one could categorically say that it was their members falsifying data, but there are numerous examples of supervisors and managers having input into this system.

The GRA also points to the O’Sullivan report's findings that there was also little or no training, and the recording process was flawed.

The association also says the data was gathered for no clear purpose, and was then used as a crude measure of productivity and fed into a culture of competition among senior ranks to improve their promotion chances.

"GRA members did not falsify figures. [They] were told to elevate figures by ... management, and those figures were elevated thus." pic.twitter.com/uSa5v4kQ3l — RTÉ News (@rtenews) September 14, 2017

GRA spokesperson John O'Keeffe said no blame should be assigned to "ordinary gardaí" in relation to false breath tests.

He said that gardaí were under duress from middle and senior management within An Garda Síochána to elevate figures, with the threat being that if they did not, there would be implications for their future in the force.

"They did not falsify the figures that means that the blame singularly goes on them.

"There is no blame on the ordinary male or female garda on the street. The blame is on the people who insisted these figures be elevated," said Mr O’Keefe.

"The defence is one of duress. They were under duress from middle and senior management.

"They were ordered to elevate these figures and implicit in this threat is that if they did not that there would be implications for their working life."