State focus ‘on resolution’ not contingency for gardaí strike

Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald is to meet the Garda Representative Association (GRA) and the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (Agsi) this week.

The Tánaiste said she was not considering the alternatives and was focused solely on securing a resolution to the dispute.

Ms Fitzgerald said the Government will do everything it possibly can to find a pathway forward.

Asked if there was a back-up plan in place if the negotiations proved fruitless, the Tánaiste said: “The point is the guards are the civil authority of this country. I want to ensure that continues to be the case.

“My focus is to discuss how we can make progress in the current situation.”

The GRA has voted to take industrial action following the rejection of pay proposals negotiated with the Department of Justice.

The action includes a withdrawal of services on November 4th, 11th, 18th and 25th.

There has been suggestions the Defence Forces may be relied upon on those dates to provide frontline policing.

However, Ms Fitzgerald said there was “no question” that the Army could become the civil authority.

She said there were a number of weeks to continue the discussions and negotiations.

A spokeswoman for the GRA said last night it had no comment to make about the invitation to meet with the Minister this week.

Separately the executive of the Irish Nursing and Midwives Organisation (INMO) is to meet on Tuesday to consider the issue of pay and working hours for its members.

Nurses are expected to seek reforms to the existing requirement for them to carry out one and a half hours of unpaid additional work each week, particularly in the light of proposed changes made by the Government to gardai in this area in recent weeks.

Meanwhile it has also emerged that the Government is facing court action by non-consultant hospital doctors towards the end of October over the abolition of living -out allowances valued at about €2,500 for staff taken on after early 2012.