Further talks are to take place today and tomorrow to try to break the impasse in the Garda pay talks which gardai claim has prevented them from using a new £55 million computer system.
The talks between Government officials and Garda representatives are seeking to find a way to meet Garda demands on pay and conditions within the existing public sector pay awards.
The Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, yesterday repeated that he wished to see the PULSE (police using leading systems effectively) system introduced as soon as possible. However, he acknowledged that the refusal to work the system was part of an 18-month long industrial dispute.
The PULSE system was to have been phased in from February. The old system, which is non-Y2K compliant, was shut down on Tuesday night and the force is now without a computerised records system for criminal records, vehicle registration information and court records.
However, it is understood that the lack of a computer records system was not having any significant immediate impact, as gar dai have always kept written records as well as computer records. There was no indication yesterday of what payment or changes to working conditions might be on offer to gardai to induce them to work the new system.
Mr P.J. Stone, general secretary of the Garda Representative Association (GRA), said the need to find a solution was becoming urgent.
"The GRA are committed to resolving this dispute and over recent days we have taken a number of initiatives to try and settle it. Unfortunately, the various proposals we have tabled have not yet found favour with the Government," he said.
"However, if this dispute is going to be resolved, some formula will have to be found which can be put to our members and endorsed by them. Given that the GRA's proposals are not acceptable to Government, the onus is now very much on the Government themselves to say what they are prepared to do to break this current impasse."
The Garda Commissioner said he wanted "to reassure people that we will provide a police service today, tomorrow and the next day, as we did last week and the day before. My people will be on the ground working night and day in providing that service."
Asked about the directive from the GRA to gardai not to work the new computer system, countermanding his directive that it should be worked, Mr Byrne said: "I am the head of the Garda Siochana and I take that responsibility very, very seriously. If staff associations issue directives directing people not to carry out my instructions it is something that is a very serious.
"I have nearly just over 9,000 gardai, sergeants and inspectors. Nobody in their right mind would suggest for one moment that I dismiss 9,000 people. So we have got to deal with this, this has to be negotiated through.
"But how long am I going to accept this? I can't accept it for very long. At the end of the day, we can't continue with a paper-based system. I will make very serious decisions on this whole issue.
"This directive will have to be implemented and accepted by the organisation. We are trying to implement a state-of-the art system which will enhance our performance and provide safety for our people.
"I won't accept a situation, while this is ongoing in the next couple of days, that any citizen or member of my force will be jeopardised by any member of my force not accessing a system to provide information or intelligence to ensure that that would not happen," Mr Byrne said.