The Garda Representative Association has rejected an offer by the Minister for Justice for third-party mediation in its pay dispute and looks set to escalate its industrial action. This will include what will be in effect a strike on two days when the Tour de France visits Ireland next month.
A GRA source yesterday said plans for the industrial action during the Tour were still in place. The action was decided at the GRA conference last month and reaffirmed at Wednesday's meeting of the GRA central executive. According to the source, the threat is still in place.
The GRA is expected today to call a one-day stoppage for early next week along the lines of its previous "blue flu" strike on May 1st when most of the 8,000 officers of garda rank called in sick.
In spite of the entrenched positions adopted by both sides, Government sources last night suggested some prospect of movement later today but refused to express optimism or to indicate how this might happen. The Cabinet will today discuss the prospect of another round of "blue flu" protests. The Government feels its hand will be strengthened further by CSO figures to be published today which it believes will demonstrate that Garda pay is in line with that of other public-sector workers.
The acting general secretary of the GRA, Mr P.J. Stone, said on radio yesterday that third-party mediators were "hardly an option". "Introducing tanglers or third-party gurus is hardly an option because it is only stringing this thing out," he said.
Earlier, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said: "I have never seen a dispute that was resolved without people sitting down. There is one thing certain: that if we don't sit down we are not going to resolve this one either. It is a sad situation if we get into escalation before we agree to differ.
"We have not got to a state of conclusion of negotiations. People left that. I know the gardai put forward figures of 39 per cent and I know they would probably privately acknowledge that that is not really where they are at. But they would say that if there was 15 per cent put on the table excluding productivity, that that would be meaningful negotiations.
"We need to be very clear. We are not going to be having any meaningful negotiations even if they were back at the table. You cannot pay 15 per cent to one group when practically everyone else settled at five. That is just not possible. Clearly if the Government were to turn around and pay 15 per cent plus, every single group in the whole public sector of this country would be back in with a claim about an agreement that finished 18 months ago."