The Government may again have to intervene to resolve a Garda pay claim centred on the introduction of a £36 million information system which is needed to ensure that the force's existing computer technology does not collapse.
The proposal to introduce pilot schemes for the new system, known as PULSE (Police Using Leading Systems Effectively) next month, with full implementation of the system next year, has not apparently been resolved at arbitration in which Garda staff associations participated. It is now expected that gardai will demand further pay increases for implementing new technology and working procedures.
The new system, under preparation for four years, needs to be in place by the end of next year as the existing computer system could succumb to the "millennium bug". If it is not in place the existing computers will require new software to insure against malfunction.
Some of the Garda computers use software dating from the 1970s, and there is a concern that these will malfunction at the turn of the millennium when the machines fail to register the year 2000 as a proper date.
The introduction of the new computer system is due for negotiation under the terms of the agreement which settled the "blue flu" Garda industrial dispute last July.
According to the terms of the pay deal accepted earlier in the summer the GRA appears to have agreed to PULSE training but not to the implementation of the new system itself.
The leadership of the main staff association, the Garda Representative Association (GRA), is to meet tomorrow to discuss its approach to the new computers.
The issue was raised at a meeting between the GRA leadership and the Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, in Garda headquarters last Friday. It is understood that at the meeting the Commissioner stressed that agreement had to be reached quickly on the PULSE programme as time was running out for the old computer system.
The GRA acting deputy general secretary, Mr Tony Hand, said yesterday: "We met the Commissioner and listened to what he had to say. We understand his viewpoint but we think his interpretation of what was agreed and our interpretation are different. For that reason our central executive committee will be meeting [on Thursday] to decide where to go."
The computer issue is associated with the lack of resolution of a number of pay-related issues. Senior Garda officers are also unhappy at the way in which the Government side has handled their pay demands and have still to reach agreement on Government offers under the last public pay sector round which should have closed at the start of 1997.
Senior officers are angry that the pay differentials between the lowest and highest ranks have eroded over the past 20 years and that the pay deal given to the lower ranks has further reduced the levels of pay between the ranks.