Coming hard on last year's two days of industrial action by gardai - the so-called "Blue Flu" - representatives of the two main staff associations are again threatening action over the introduction of a nationwide police intelligence network which will run off 1,400 PCs in every station in the State.
The system has been under test for five years and is now ready for its "roll out".
It is already months behind schedule. Garda management feels increasingly pressed, caught between the staff associations' demand for more pay and the Government's insistence that the Garda staff stay within the public sector pay limits.
The main concern for management is that the existing seven-computer networks may "crash" at the end of this year, causing chaos if the new system is not up and running.
For their part, the two main staff "unions" (they are not technically unions as they don't have the right to strike and are not affiliated to ICTU), the Garda Representative Association and Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors are determined not to work the system without a pay rise.
Both associations seem determined. The AGSI general secretary, Mr George Maybury, set out his position, that there would be no working of the new system without compensation, at a meeting in the Taoiseach's Department a month ago to discuss pay and productivity. Mr Maybury was understandably annoyed when members of the GRA, at their annual conference last week, sniped at AGSI after a rumour circulated that the sergeants and inspectors were preparing to cave in.
Since last year's two days of industrial action the GRA has emerged as a united and quite militant organisation. Although debarred under law from striking, its leadership said it would take "proper" industrial action if there was an attempt to force its members to work the system without extra pay.
This is causing dismay among the members of Garda management who see, in the new system, the revolutionising of policing in the State.
Once it is working properly the system, known as PULSE (an acronym for Police Using Leading Systems Effectively), will provide stations, instantly, with data about crime.
For instance, if someone is caught passing forged cheques in Cork, it is extremely difficult for the arresting officers to discover within the time they are allowed to detain the suspect if he or she has a record of such crime or is wanted for other offences in other areas.
Under PULSE, the arresting officers need only enter a name, date of birth or car licence number and the system will immediately provide information relating to the suspect.
The obvious need for such a network was shown last November when a heroin addict from north Dublin was caught on security videos carrying out armed robberies of a succession of building societies and banks in the south of the city.
It was only when the man's face appeared on television news that a garda in Santry recognised the suspect and telephoned the investigating officers.
Once PULSE is running the man's image could be broadcast to all 1,400 PCs in Garda stations. This type of internal broadcasting will greatly assist rural police tracking down the teams of thieves who have been moving around the State robbing the homes of the elderly and isolated.
Some detectives, however, are highly sceptical of the worth of the system, saying it is merely a statistic- and record-keeping machine.
Officers who have been involved in its development, however, point out that its operation was conceptualised by gardai themselves, detectives and uniformed offices from the rank of garda up to inspector. These groups gathered at the Officers' Mess at Garda Headquarters over the past four years, and each rank and specialist gave opinions as to what they needed in the system. Computer people from Andersen Consulting listened to the Garda's needs and designed the system around this.
The resulting network will be huge and massively powerful - and expensive. At its launch, its cost was put at £36 million and this has since risen to £55 million.
But, having visited some 160 other forces to examine their systems, the PULSE loyalists in management say there is nothing better available. In fact, PULSE appears to have reversed a trend of having to go abroad for advice and equipment. Several police forces have expressed interest in the Irish system which may become a model for others around the world.