No breakthrough in talks on averting Garda strike plans

Talks between the Garda Representative Association (GRA) and the Department of Justice aimed at averting strike action by gardaí scheduled to begin next week are to continue on Tuesday.

It is understood that there were also informal contacts yesterday (Mon) between the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) and the Department of Justice.

As part of an escalating campaign of industrial action over pay and access to the State’s industrial relations machinery, AGSI members will not use the Garda Pulse IT system next Friday and will also refuse to undertake any administrative duties such as detailing members for duty, processing files or responding to correspondence from management.

Members of both the AGSI and GRA are scheduled to engage in strike action on the four Fridays in November.

Labour Party leader Brendan Howlin last night said the Government should have included money in the budget for next year to cover a faster pace of pay restoration for public service staff.

Lansdowne Road agreement The Government has insisted that the only money available next year to public service employees will be the amounts set out in the Lansdowne Road agreement.

In a speech to a Labour Party meeting in Dublin Mr Howlin said making an allowance for accelerated pay recovery would have been “both the logical and the strategic choice”.

“But as with their foolish tax cut, their refusal to reduce class sizes, or their abandonment of overseas development aid and the arts, this Government didn’t make the right choice,” he said. “Instead, they stick their heads in the sand, and repeat ad nauseum - ‘the Lansdowne Road Agreement is the only show in town’...that mantra isn’t good enough.”