Contingency plans are in place should the Garda pay dispute not be resolved in time for the Tour de France, the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Re creation said yesterday.
But Dr McDaid was "confident" the dispute would be resolved and the threat of gardai withdrawing their services for the event would not materialise.
Mr Pat McQuaid of L'Evenement, which is co-ordinating the tour in Ireland, said the Garda was prepared for its biggest ever operation. A total of 3,020 gardai and 850 civil defence volunteers would be on duty for the event's first two stages.
Renewed talks between the Garda Representative Association and officials from the Department of Justice will take place today.
The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, said he did not wish to pre-empt whatever came out of the talks. But there is optimism that the GRA will accept an improved offer of a 9 per cent increase for rank-and-file gardai.
Such an offer has yet to be formally made, but it is understood that if GRA representatives signal their acceptance today to the talks chairman, the former Department of Justice secretary, Mr Declan Brennan, the Government will do likewise.
Referring to a threatened national strike by train-drivers on July 12th, Dr McDaid said: "Nothing will stop the Tour.
"I would say to those people who are trying to use the Tour that all they are doing is depriving the people and the children of this country of a once-in-a-lifetime event."
