The Taoiseach and business leaders joined forces yesterday to warn public service workers that outstanding pay claims could undermine the social partnership at national level.
Today more than 4,000 city-based members of the Garda Representative Association begin balloting on new rosters, as part of a 4 per cent pay deal. Yesterday 28,000 nurses began balloting on strike action over pay.
At the annual conference in Dublin of the National Centre for Partnership, Mr Ahern reiterated the Government's determination "to put the national interest first by not yielding to individual groups as they pursue agendas at variance with the wider common good.
"In particular, the nursing profession as a group should take full account of the Government's determination not to depart from the recent Labour Court findings," he said.
"When combined with earlier awards, they represent a very generous recognition of the special role of nurses in our society, constituting an additional £150 million on a pay bill of £665 million and an increase of 23 per cent.
"The Government is fully prepared to implement these awards, on top of the many recommendations of the Commission on Nursing already being implemented.
"We in Government wish to work in partnership with all, but we are determined to stand firm on the findings of the Labour Court. We simply cannot ignore the consequences of doing otherwise," the Taoiseach said.
Mr Ahern said afterwards that nurses seemed to think they could resolve all their problems at once. But they must accept that some of their claims and arguments could be dealt with in the future.
The director-general of the Irish Business and Employers' Confederation, Mr John Dunne, also expressed concern that pay claims in the public service could undermine social partnership. However, he said many of the problems arose from the failure of the public sector to adapt. It had become "a relic of the past, quite unsuitable to the needs of the Irish economy, perhaps the most open economy in the world and operating in the teeth of extreme competition".
Partnership in the private sector was not without its growing pains, he said, but it was free of the "demon of the apparently immutable system of relativities" that dominated the public sector. It would take great courage and leadership to remove relativities as the key pay determinant. Mr Dunne said the focus in the public sector should be on the delivery of services and the establishment of links between pay and performance.
The general secretary of the Irish Nurses' Organisation, Mr Liam Doran, who was a participant in the conference, said he was there to show nurses' commitment to partnership.
"But I represent people who feel they are being excluded. Partnership has to mean something to nurses, but nothing I am hearing at the moment suggests that the nurses' position is understood," he said.
He added that nurses did not understand how they had become public enemy No 1 in relation to the Government.
There had been a 90 per cent rejection of the Labour Court award, which showed that the extent of the bewilderment and frustration felt by nurses was not a figment of the imagination.
"The Government's hard line is only feeding the resolve of nurses, regarding concern for themselves and concern for the service they are providing to the public," he added.
Mr Doran said he believed, from the feedback at meetings, that it would be difficult to agree levels of cover for emergency care in major acute hospitals if the strike went ahead.