The Garda Siochana will be Y2K-compatible. That is as long as a significant section of the force accepts a pay-for-productivity deal and does not upset plans for the millennium with another bout of "Blue Flu" industrial action.
Yesterday, Garda management announced plans which it said would deal with emergencies that might arise from critical computer failures or public disorder.
While the rest of the country celebrates, gardai will be well prepared for major disasters, millennium computer bugs and "celebratory" activities which might get out of hand, it was predicted.
The head of the Garda Press Office, Supt John Farrelly, told a press conference to outline the Garda Millennium Plan that although there were "industrial difficulties", negotiations were "ongoing" and senior management was "quite confident at this time" that the situation would be resolved.
Senior gardai said initial predictions were that as much as 75 per cent of the force will be on duty with all leave cancelled from 6 a.m. on Thursday, December 30th, to 6 a.m. on Tuesday, January 4th.
A special Garda Website - www.garda.ie - has been set up for organisers of special events to contact the force about arrangements. i on duty can provide a suitable response.
The force has appointed an officer with the specific charge of overseeing millennium policing. Asst Commissioner Dick Kelly is working with the other emergency services to agree contingency plans in the event of difficulties.
Yesterday he announced details of a regional policing plan interlinked with other emergency services promising "core responses to whatever emergency that will arrive".
Key to the Garda response is the fulfilment of its own ambitious computerised information technology plans. The force has to have up and running a multi-million-pound IT system known as PULSE (Police Using Leading Systems Effectively) by the end of the year to ensure that it remains fully operational.
Work on the Garda computer system in preparation for the millennium has been under way since 1992. Chief Supt Eddie Cussen, who has charge of the IT operations, said yesterday that all the force's emergency systems were Y2K-compliant and back-up systems were in place. No date was available yet for the PULSE system going on line, but it should be working by the end of the year.
PULSE was initially meant to have been fully operational by early summer. It has been delayed because of the refusal by almost the entire force to operate it until the satisfactory conclusion of pay talks.
Two weeks ago gardai in Dublin, Cork, Waterford and Limerick voted not to accept a Government pay offer that would result in major changes to their working conditions. Negotiations to break the impasse have been unsuccessful.
Included in the negotiations has been an insistence that the PULSE system be in place and fully operational before the end of the year. This has apparently nonplussed staff representatives who announced earlier this year they would be seeking a major pay rise to work the new computers and accept changes to working practices. They also said they want £1,000 a head in overtime for working the millennium.
According to some Garda representatives yesterday, there is solid opposition among city police to the imposition of new working rosters and to the introduction of the PULSE system.