ALL the State's legal work, including criminal prosecutions, is threatened with disruption from March 18th because of industrial action by professional staff in the chief state solicitor's office.
Some 93 per cent of solicitors in the CSSO have voted to strike because of under staffing and what they allege is management's failure to negotiate meaningfully.
Given the size of the majority, their union, IMPACT, is expected to approve the strike when its divisional executive meet's on Monday. Seven days strike notice will then be served on the CSSO.
IMPACT represents `38 solicitors and 35 technical staff in the CSSO, but only the solicitors are involved in the dispute. They seek the appointment of 17 additional staff to help meet an expanding workload.
Ten positions would be for assistant solicitors and seven for financial and administrative staff. IMPACT says eight vacancies have remained unfilled since 1995.
The leaking of a confidential report on CSSO deficiencies to The Irish Times on the eve of the strike poll appears to have been the final straw for IMPACT members, whose assistant general secretary, Mr Dave Hughes, says the union did not receive the Deloitte and Touche report until it threatened industrial action just before Christmas, even though the report had been finalised in November.
The union says it is still being told, that management is not in a position to discuss extra staff because it is awaiting clearance from the Department of Finance and the Attorney General.
"The argument that management has not formed a view, nearly three months after receiving this damning report, is simply beyond belief," Mr Hughes says.
"IMPACT members have campaigned for over three years for a radical shake up. At the time of the Brendan Smyth affair, which led to major reforms in the Attorney General's office, we appealed to the Attorney General for immediate action to reform the state solicitor's office as well."
Practically every aspect of the State's legal work, ranging from extradition cases to advising Government departments on routine legal queries and criminal prosecutions, will be affected if the strike goes ahead.