The operation of the State's District courts is expected to return to normal today following a decision by the country's 32 State solicitors to call off their campaign of industrial action, which began on Monday.
The move follows the successful conclusion of negotiations between the Government, the State Solicitors Association (SSA) and a third party mediator in Dublin yesterday.
This means that the threat of a further escalation of the dispute, planned for next week and which would have seen the action extended to cover Circuit Court cases, has also been withdrawn.
As part of yesterday's agreement, State solicitors - who prosecute cases in the District and Circuit courts - can expect to receive within weeks some €5.7 million in arrears which are owed to them by the State.
Immediate payment of this money had been a key demand of the SSA, which claimed that its members had been subsidising the Government by paying for staff costs, office costs and other general administration costs.
The president of the SSA, Michael Murray, last night expressed his satisfaction with the outcome of yesterday's negotiations, and said broad agreement had been reached on the outstanding issues.
This is understood to also include agreement on aspects of a proposed new contract which the SSA had claimed would have prevented its members from operating a private practice, as well as recognition of State solicitors' security of tenure. There had been fears that the new contract would mean they could be dismissed from their posts at 12 months' notice and without compensation.
Mr Murray added that the salary element of the SSA's claim would be addressed by the Review Body on Higher Remuneration in the Public Sector later this year, as had previously been agreed.
"It's been a long hard struggle and I'm pleased now that we've got some resolution to the matter," he told The Irish Times. "The decision to take industrial action was something which it was very painful for us to do. It went very much against the grain with us."
Mr Murray said the industrial action by his members in the District courts had been suspended for one day yesterday, pending the outcome of the negotiations at the offices of the Director of Public Prosecutions in Dublin.
The action by the SSA is understood to have led to only limited disruption of the system this week. But there were fears that if it were to be extended to cover Circuit Court cases, this would have led to more extensive disruption in the longer term. A spokesman for the Government was last night unable to comment on the outcome of the negotiations.