The Government is facing a threat of further industrial action from the Garda, including possible disruption from superintendents, many of whom hold key operations positions.
The staff association representing the 162 officers of superintendent rank said yesterday it might follow the example of the garda ranks and carry out some form of industrial action in support of a pay claim.
The Association of Garda Superintendents yesterday said it had reached a "brick wall" in its negotiations with Government over a pay claim.
The association began a series of meetings with its membership last night, with members serving in the Dublin Metropolitan Area.
Further meetings are being held over the next two weeks and a motion proposing some form of industrial action, most likely a form of work-to-rule, will be discussed.
Action by the superintendents, who hold the key middle management position in the force, could seriously disrupt reorganisation plans.
The association representing 8,600 officers of garda rank, the Garda Representative Association, has already warned it will not accept the introduction of a new computerised information system without a further pay raise.
If the £36 million system is not in place by next year the existing Garda computers could malfunction in 2000.
The senior officers of superintendent and chief superintendent rank are particularly angry because garda pay structures mean promotion to their rank means a pay decrease in many cases.
This anomaly has come about because officers of superintendent rank and higher no longer receive the overtime and other allowances which are given to officers of lower rank.
It is understood the Government offer to the superintendents, at a meeting on October 6th last, was of a rise of between 1 and 2 per cent on top of the basic percentage increase of 9 per cent offered to the entire force after the industrial action by the GRA.