Tánaiste welcomes decision for gardaí to call off Friday’s strike

The Tánaiste has welcomed the decision to defer a nationwide garda strike scheduled for today.

The Garda Representative Association (GRA) and the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) both suspended their planned industrial action following pay recommendations issued by the Labour Court on Thursday night.

About 12,500 rank-and-file and middle management officers will now be asked to vote on a deal in a bid to avert three 24-hour strikes planned for each Friday this month.

Assistant Garda Commissioner Michael O’Sullivan said on Friday the contingency plans in the event of a strike today did not include martial law.

“At no stage was martial law mentioned. It never ever appeared,” he said.

Mr O’Sullivan said there would not have been any need to put the army on the streets as the Garda Síochana had a contingency plan in place.

Mr O’Sullivan said industrial relations were part and parcel of modern society. However, he told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland gardaí are very different. “No other organisation has had 88 of its people killed on duty.”

The Assistant Commissioner defended the Commissioner Noirín O’Sullivan’s decision to write to all members to instruct them to turn up to work today.

“It was the Commissioner’s duty to remind members of their role and their duty.”

The Government is expected to accept the proposals set out by the Labour Court for Garda pay, although they are likely to cost significantly more than the €30 million package of measures rejected by the GRA earlier this week.

Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald thanked the Workplace Relations Commission and the Labour Court for their role in averting the strike.

She also thanked the GRA and the AGSI for their roles in the negotiations.

Details of pay proposal

The pay rise put forward by state mediators is worth about several thousand euro.

The Labour Court has recommended rank and file gardaí receive a new €15 payment for every day of annual leave.

The €4,000 rent allowance should be restored for recently -recruited gardaí immediately on the acceptance of the new proposals.

The proposals will also see rent allowance integrated into core pay for all gardaí - which will have a knock-on impact on premium payments and overtime - should be brought forward to the beginning of January 2017.

It also recommended that the new €1,459 payment for gardaí to attend briefings prior to starting their shifts should also be introduced in January, earlier than previously anticipated.

Ciarán O’Neill, president of the GRA, said the decision to defer the strike action “came down to the wire”.

“One can only blame the government for delaying the use of the Labour Court. The government were dragging their heels,” he said.

“Some of the increments had a phased element, now there is a straight-forward payment which is better.

“The restoration of rent allowance is also a welcome improvement.”

Pat Ennis of the GRA said the proposal was an improvement on others received from Government.

“We need to give full consideration to it and consider the strengths and weaknesses of it. There is a lot of minutiae in it that needs to be analysed,” he said.

“We are going to reconvene next Monday to examine our position.”

AGSI president Antoinette Cunningham said a "fundamental and historic wrong" had been put right on Thursday night.

“The AGSI have gained an uplift in the income of all our members, the details of which will be circulated to the national executive and membership and will be subsequently balloted upon,” she said.