The State Solicitors' Association (SSA) is expected to write to the Government later this week to advise it that it cannot accept its latest offer regarding the pay and conditions of its 31 serving members around the country.
In a move which could lead to a curtailing of the services provided by State solicitors, who prosecute cases in Circuit and District Courts for the State, the organisation is understood to be preparing to reject what it believes are "unacceptable conditions" attached to the offer.
It is also unhappy about the failure of the offer to consider an increase in personal salary rates for its members.
According to the SSA, the Government's offer, made at the end of April, has allowed for significant increases in allowances for staff costs and expenses for some, but not all, of its members.
However, it has not addressed the issue of increases in their salaries.
The Government is also understood to be refusing to let long-serving members stay on in the job for a period of five years after the age of 65 and is disputing the level of pension and/or gratuity payments to which State solicitors are entitled.
The SSA has since walked out of discussions.
A Government spokesman said it had not yet received a response from the SSA to the offer, which it said was made at the end of April. Once received, it would be given all appropriate consideration, he said.
However, he added that the offer made to the SSA was based on an independent review of the State solicitors' workload carried out by two retired senior civil servants.
"If accepted, this offer would result in a significant increase in remuneration for all State solicitors, with the precise rate of increase depending on individual caseload," he said.
Last April, the president of the SSA, Michael Murray, who is State solicitor for Limerick city, warned that he was no longer prepared to "subsidise the State" in his role.
This followed the resignation of two other State solicitors - Ciarán MacLochlainn in Donegal and Eugene Tormey in north Tipperary - due to financial concerns. It has since emerged that Mr MacLochlainn's successor, Margaret Mulrine, has also resigned after less than a year.
Ms Mulrine told The Irish Times yesterday that she faced 49 trials and 57 summary appeals at one recent sitting of Letterkenny Circuit Court alone.
She is now planning to return to private practice.
"I took it on the basis that I was told there was going to be an increase . . . I'm not running a Vincent de Paul box for the Government," she said.
