Talks between Government officials and Garda representative bodies continued yesterday evening, attempting to resolve the pay dispute and the refusal by gardai to operate a new £55 million computer system.
The discussions are understood to centre on terms on which the Garda representative staff associations would agree to work the PULSE system, which was to have been fully operational by last month.
Yesterday the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors, which represents around 2,000 officers, warned that middle managers in the Garda iochna were suffering "extreme" frustration over working conditions and lack of career opportunities.
In an editorial in its monthly magazine, Garda News, the AGSI said: "Only the disciplinary regulations and the statutory debarment from striking has prevented key personnel from walking off their posts in the past few years.
"The extreme frustration at the lack of action by Garda management to relieve almost unbearable pressure on the personnel who are the coalface of dealing with the public - sergeants in charge, station house officers, area administrators and inspectors - continues to build up and will have to find expression in some manner."
The AGSI said that despite Government promises to increase the size of the force, units in Garda stations were being decimated. The substantial number of retirements due over the next year meant that pressure on working conditions for middle management and lack of promotion prospects would continue to cause frustration for middle management.
"The general situation for the middle ranks has reached an intolerable point. AGSI will not put up with this situation much longer," it said.
The AGSI advised its membership not to co-operate with implementing the PULSE system, the largest computer network in the State. The 8,000 officers of garda rank were instructed by their representatives in the GRA to refuse to use the system.
Yesterday Garda sources said there had been no serious problems so far due to the computer not being used. Records on crimes, court appearances and firearms were being kept manually. When the dispute is resolved, these records will be transferred to the system.