Prolonged negotiations and the intervention of an adjudication board appeared last night to have brought about a settlement of the long-running pay dispute that has caused near-havoc in the Garda Siochana.
After more than six years, it appears negotiators from the Department of Justice and the Garda Representative Association (GRA) have reached an agreement that they believe should be acceptable to most members of the force.
The GRA has done better than other public - and private - sector workers through the deal, but argued strongly that its members' pay had fallen badly behind other workers' salary levels over the past 15 years.
The putative agreement should bring to an end the GRA's demands under the last public sector pay round, the Programme for Competitiveness and Work (PCW).
Negotiations on the PCW ended for the rest of the State's workforce two years ago, but the gardai had held on tenaciously to achieve better increases.
It would appear that it achieved close to its objective of a 13 per cent increase under the PCW, well above the national average.
It is now, more than two years behind other unions and public sector groups, entering into negotiations under the new Programme 2000.
The road to the settlement with gardai has been fraught with difficulties and, at one stage, split the 8,000-strong GRA, which has represented the rank of garda in pay and conditions negotiations for 21 years.
The problems over pay demands began in 1993 when, under the pay programme before PCW, the GRA accepted a settlement that forwent an increase in pay for what was termed a "pension ability" deal which made all garda allowances (which make up at least 12 per cent of all garda pay) equivalent to normal pay in terms of pension benefits.
This was an attractive deal to members approaching retirement but caused a major split in the GRA between its rural membership and city members who had lodged some 39 demands for better salary and allowances because of the different nature of their work.
When the GRA central executive committee accepted the "pensionability" deal, the city members resigned en masse and formed their own unofficial representative body, the Garda Federation.
The Government, unwilling to deal with two unions, embarked on two years of, at times, acrimonious and intense negotiations to bring the two groups back together. This eventually came about two years ago with the Government's offer of a "special" pay deal.
By the start of last year, however, growing militancy within the GRA led to a breakdown in the pay talks, and on May 1st last year the first stoppage by gardai throughout the State. Gardai cannot officially strike, but the vast majority of the force of garda rank reported "sick" for what became known as Blue Flu day.
This was followed by another even more widespread stoppage in September.
Eventually agreement on a tentative settlement was reached after the intervention of the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, with an offer that was well above the PCW deal struck with other State employees. The offer held out the possibility of 13 per cent increases, although this was officially denied at the time.
However, there was further wrangling over details and interpretations of the deal worked out by Mr Ahern. The GRA and the smaller associations representing ranks right up to chief superintendent were still unhappy about the conditions set for the pay deal.
Having already struck twice, the GRA threatened to refuse to work the £55 million PULSE (Police Using Leading Systems Effectively) computer network currently being installed in stations throughout the State. As the deadline for the PULSE introduction loomed, both sides agreed to go before an adjudication board.
According to informed sources, the deal struck has given the GRA a 2.5 per cent pay increase with allowance increases that add a further 1.5 per cent. With the 9 per cent achieved last year this represents a 13 per cent increase under PCW.
Despite having apparently bettered the public sector pay barriers, there is still dissatisfaction among city-based gardai in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway. These officers work a "three relief" shift system, which is to be altered under the productivity terms of the new deal. Alteration of this system will mean less certain monthly working rosters and less unsocial-hours and overtime allowances.
City gardai will also be most affected by the "civilianisation" terms, which mean more station work being carried out by civilian secretarial staff and by the PULSE computer system.