Government and Garda negotiators last night agreed a formula to settle the dispute which has been hindering the introduction of the force's new £55 million PULSE computer system.
Some 8,000 gardai will be balloted in the coming week on the proposals, following a decision by their negotiators to accept a settlement.
It is understood that agreement was reached after Government negotiators agreed to allow discussion of a reduced working week, but only on the basis that these talks would be at conciliation level and outside the present pay negotiations.
It was agreed yesterday that conciliation talks on the proposed 39-hour week for gardai would be finalised by the end of February.
Both sides also agreed to renegotiate proposals to change the present system of paying gardai with a pay cheque twice monthly and cheques for earnings from allowances on the alternate weeks.
The new pay path proposal created resistance among gardai, who had been accustomed to receiving a weekly cheque.
If the 8,000 members of the GRA vote in favour of acceptance, they will then have agreed to operate the new PULSE system, which is lying unused in Garda stations.
The main Garda staff body, the Garda Representative Association, is expected to send ballot papers out today. The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors will also have to decide on the proposals within the same time period.
The terms of the formula are said by Government sources to be within the parameters of the original pay deal settled in August, which gave the Garda an additional 4.4 per cent as part of a pay-for-productivity deal.
In a statement last night, the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, said that he welcomed the decision of the GRA "to immediately ballot and recommend to their members acceptance of the agreement reached by the Department of Justice and the GRA executive on proposals to resolve the Garda pay and PULSE impasse".
The GRA, in a statement, said that the final element of the deal involved the creation of a "consultative council" for the force.
"The establishment of this body will help all of us involved in the Garda Siochana to find a better way of dealing with industrial relations issues," according to the GRA's general secretary, Mr P.J. Stone. There had "possibly been too many disputes" over the years, he said, and the council could "nip these in the bud".