Agreement was reached on a settlement to the national firefighters' pay dispute at 3 a.m. today, just six hours before the national strike deadline.
The deal provides for over £6 million to be paid to Dublin's firefighters this year to maintain parity with the Garda. The payments will be worth about £8,000.
The attempt to avert today's national strike by firefighters began at 7 p.m. yesterday, when SIPTU's vice-president, Mr Des Geraghty, and the Dublin city manager, Mr John Fitzgerald, met to try to resolve it. Both were accompanied by teams of negotiators.
Resolution of the Dublin dispute automatically leads to strike action being called off in Cork and 10 other centres, as the 200 permanent provincial firefighters have a direct pay link with their 900 Dublin colleagues.
The talks emerged out of discussions yesterday afternoon between union officials and Dublin Corporation management on the level of emergency cover the striking firefighters would provide during the strike.
The discussions took place after 12 hours of talks at the Labour Court broke down yesterday.
The unions had indicated their willingness to accept a Labour Court recommendation allowing the payment of up to 9 per cent pay relativity with the Garda, in return for an independent evaluation of the productivity concessions they were offering.
Union leaders said that if the productivity given was worth less than 9 per cent, it could be adjusted upwards in future talks. Dublin Corporation negotiators are understood to have found this unacceptable.
Yesterday, pressure mounted on the corporation and the unions, SIPTU and IMPACT, to resolve the dispute. The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, expressed concern that a strike was pending when relatively little divided the two sides.
During a break in discussions shortly before 1 a.m., a SIPTU branch secretary, Mr Paul Smith, said progress was being made on a number of issues and both sides had signed off on new technology and ISO 9002 certification. These had been important sticking points at the abortive discussions in the Labour Court the previous night.
Earlier, an IMPACT official, Mr Sean Redmond, said he was "reasonably optimistic" about the outcome. "We entered these talks hoping we can reach agreement with the corporation and prevent a strike. This time it looks more hopeful."
Corporation officials felt a settlement was close, although they said that it was important to contain costs. The total bill for the greater Dublin fire and ambulance service is £44 million, of which 86 per cent goes to staff.