The outcome of the four-year-old Garda pay dispute is expected to be known later this week following the ballot of members on a renegotiation of a pension deal originally concluded on March 28th, 1994.
Effectively, gardai are being offered a "second bite of the cherry" in return for industrial peace in the force, while the Government has subsequently been fighting a rearguard action to ring-fence the pay proposal, which allows for average increases of around 9 per cent, but which vary depending on service from 5.5 per cent to slightly over 13 per cent.
Hardly had the ink dried on the Garda pay deal before the INTO's general secretary, Senator Joe O'Toole, served notice on Government that his members would also be casting their nets into the ever-swelling Government coffers, ostensibly to keep abreast of the gardai.
The claim, while not gaining universal Congress support, did provide, in Mr O'Toole's words, "a focus" for last Tuesday's review of the Partnership 2000 meeting at Dublin Castle.
At the conclusion of that meeting, the ICTU general secretary, Mr Peter Cassells, declared that "Congress is recommending that new methods of pay rewards for public servants, which will not automatically result in knock-on claims, should be developed between the Government and public service unions as a matter of urgency".
On the face of it, the teachers' claim appears the essence of political opportunism, given that they had already benefited handsomely from the now defunct Programme for Competitiveness and Work (PCW), unlike the gardai, who had controversially renounced pay improvements in favour of a pension deal.
Recent media pronouncements have branded the Garda settlement proposals as a "special pay deal", thereby creating the erroneous impression that they were set to benefit over and above public pay norms, when economic indicators tend to show that the converse is the case. While specifics on their recent negotiations, straddling two programmes, are unclear, it was felt the offer had been ring-fenced under the terms of the PCW.
This viewpoint was given added emphasis when both IBEC and ICTU declared that the Garda pay proposals would not contravene the national consensus. It was also felt that one of the factors governing the "blind eye" approach of the social partners was the expectation that a successful outcome might lead to harmony in the force.
The State had witnessed the first withdrawal of labour by rank and file gardai, who had flexed their political muscle when over 3,000 of them gathered outside Leinster House in April in the vain hope of re-creating the fanfare reception they received from Fianna Fail at the Dail earlier last year.
In that context, it is all the more baffling that the INTO has now apparently breached its own Congress's assurances in delivering its ultimatum at this time. If the claim were to be conceded it would doubtless herald an avalanche of public and private sector pay claims in an unbridled free-for-all.
While the teachers base their claim on the recent Garda pay proposals, it is by no means certain that the gardai will vote for acceptance. There are rumblings of another split in Garda representation, particularly among members of from eight to 19 years' service who are set to increase their salaries by what they see as a mere 7 per cent.
Informed sources suggest that this group was most heavily represented in recent street protests and was pivotal in influencing more junior colleagues to come out with the "blue flu". The danger is that they will now attempt to reactivate dissent.
Given the apparent success of such militancy, it is hardly surprising to see their counterparts in the Army follow suit. Their representative association (PDFORRA) has recently held what it terms a "press conference", but what many others would see as a picket, outside the Department of Defence in support of their pay demands. It is rather curious to hear some commentators demand their return to barracks when far more assertive protest merited scarcely a word of condemnation when gardai first took to the streets last year.
Political parties ought to lead by example in matters of such national importance and the policy of administrative inertia displayed by successive governments in the past with regard to our security forces has contributed to the present stalemate.
Despite the warning signals there is still a distinct absence of any Government plans for imaginative change. The recent call by Peter Cassells for the affiliation of Garda associations to Congress was met by a deafening Government silence. Despite opportunist moves in opposition, successive governments have kept a vice-like grip on the force.
In the midst of all of the uncertainty, the recent warning from the teachers is ominous for a number of reasons. While Joe O'Toole is a respected trade union leader, obliged to pursue the legitimate interests of his members, he is a pivotal influence within Congress and is being heralded as its most likely future vice-president.
His union played a significant role in putting in place the consensus which is credited with our economic revival. As a high-profile member of Seanad Eireann, he can justifiably claim credit, with his colleagues in the Lower House, for the ensuing "Celtic Tiger" phenomenon.
He, therefore, must know that the wealth created by our booming economy needs to be distributed in a more global and equitable manner and that this can best be achieved through meaningful tax reforms rather than by predatory pay demands.
The Garda and Army have demonstrably suffered from a lack of vision and opportunity in the pursuit of their financial goals. While Government has a clear obligation to address this in the short term, it must also chart a clear course for both forces in the longer term.
This can be done only by granting them statutory employee rights or, alternatively, according them a special status for pay awards. The Government would do well to learn from the failed policies of the past. The time for dithering is over.
Chris Finnegan, a former general secretary of the Garda Federation, is a freelance journalist.
