The Government has paved the way for a radical reform of the Garda by signalling that will offer a pay increase.
The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, met representatives of two of the major Garda organisations yesterday and said he wanted to make progress on their pay claims. He recommended that they involve the Irish Congress of Trade Unions in developing a "process" for a pay review.
In a carefully-worded statement the Department linked pay to the introduction of a Strategic Management Initiative (SMI) report on the Garda, completed by a review group this year.
The report recommends a radical reform of the force, and far-reaching legal changes. It seeks a "bottom-up review" of the Garda structure which could result in closures, or shorter opening hours, at Garda stations, and adjustments to officers' working hours.
If implemented, the report would also make the Garda Commissioner the "accounting officer" for the force, increasing his control over its budget and management. The Secretary of the Department of Justice currently holds that position.
The report was commissioned by the last government following the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin. It has not been published. Officials have feared that Garda groups would not accept its reforms unless progress was made on their pay claims.
The Garda groups which met the Minister yesterday seemed unimpressed with the Minister's idea of involving the ICTU, rather than establishing an independent commission to study their pay claims.
The general secretary of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors, Mr George Maybury, said its members would have to be consulted before it could respond to the Minister's proposal. But Mr P.J. Stone of the Garda Representative Association said he was "very disappointed" that the Minister did not offer a pay commission.
Today Mr O'Donoghue meets representatives of the Chief Superintendents' Association.
The statement yesterday by the Minister said the issue of Garda pay "will have to be set in the context of Government policy on public sector pay." Officially that restricts it to a 9.25 per cent increase over three years.
However Garda groups will argue that some public sector workers, such as nurses, have received higher pay awards.
The statement gave no indication whether the SMI report would be published, or implemented in whole or in part.
If implemented it could prove the most modernising influence on the force in its history. But parts of it may be controversial.
It recommends, for example, that a suspect who refuses to co-operate with a Garda investigation should be sentenced as if convicted.