Cash-in-transit services will be disrupted later this month when security staff hold a one-day protest over the threat to their safety from criminal gangs.
Following a meeting in Dublin last night, representatives of security staff in the greater Dublin area - including staff in some of the major firms - said there would be a protest on Friday April 15th.
The protest by 400 employees, who intend not to turn up for work on the day, is expected to cause significant disruption to cash services - including filling of cash machines.
Siptu's security branch secretary Kevin McMahon said that following the recent spate of robberies, the staff "want to bring public attention to the ongoing threats they are subjected to from these armed criminal gangs".
While security firms were making efforts to deal with the crime problem, it was up to the State to provide more resources for gardaí "to put these gangs out of business." His members' jobs were being put in jeopardy, Mr McMahon added.
Union leaders plan to meet on the day of the protest to see if further protest action is needed, he said, if Minister for Justice Michael McDowell failed to meet them to discuss their concerns.
Meanwhile, the Minister for Defence said yesterday he would ask the main banks to pay up to €3 million more towards the cost of providing military escorts for cash transits.
Willie O'Dea said he would be meeting representatives of the banks next week to try to conclude a new agreement on the funding of cash escorts.
The Department of Defence's bill for providing military escorts was about €7 million, he said. The banks currently made a contribution of €2.8 million and he wanted to see this amount increased.
The banks' contribution currently represented about 40 per cent of the total cost of providing military escorts and he would like to see this figure increased to 78 per cent.
The banks were meeting about 80-90 per cent of the cost of Garda escorts of cash transits in payments to the Department of Justice. According to the department, in 2003 banks paid €3 million towards a total bill of €3.2 million.
Mr O'Dea said officials at the Department of Defence had been involved in "long and difficult" talks on a new financial agreement with the banks in recent months.
The Army had been providing escorts for cash transits since the early 1980s. The thinking at the time was that it was desirable to prevent large sums of money falling into the hands of subversives. However, he added: "It was equally desirable to prevent large sums of money falling into the hands of criminals, some of whom have used these cash windfalls to get involved in the drug business."
Mr O'Dea was speaking at the review of the 30th Infantry Group, which will shortly leave for Kosovo to serve on a United Nations peacekeeping mission.
Mr O'Dea told reporters later that Ireland would participate in the controversial UN battle groups "if we can". However, he said this would not be at the expense of the triple lock.