With reports of dissension among its representatives and growing anger among its members, the Garda Representative Association (GRA) must now decide on its future strategy in the dispute over the implementation of the £40 million PULSE computer system.
A call by its general secretary, P.J. Stone, not to "push his association over the brink" did achieve a formal meeting with the Minister for Justice, but precious little else as the GRA was bluntly told there would be no advance on the 4 per cent already rejected.
Some delegates at yesterday's meeting of the GRA criticised the leadership for seeking the meeting in the first instance.
In defiance of a directive from the Garda authorities, rank-and-file gardai have refused to operate the PULSE system. Continued non-compliance could lead to mass suspensions or dismissals and the stage could be set for another "blue flu".
Mr Stone has already circularised his members that "the Commissioner fully understands our difficulties and there will be no enforced introduction of change until the industrial relations issues are resolved". On this basis gardai are refusing to operate PULSE.
The Commissioner, Pat Byrne, is accordingly faced with a dilemma on his return from the United States at the weekend. Taxed with the responsibility of "good order and discipline", he cannot afford to let the crisis drift.
With IBEC sounding warnings about a new partnership if public service pay awards are not curtailed, options for settlement appear limited. There were hints from GRA sources of a 2 per cent local bargaining clause being added to the 4 per cent, but this was not agreed
Other options believed to have been raised at the ministerial meeting included the introduction of a 39-hour working week and increased funding for Garda statutory boards, but these did not merit any concessions.
The industrial relations expert Dr Michael Barry has criticised the Government over its reactive approach to public-service pay and insisted that the way to have averted the present Garda impasse was by agreeing productivity deals in advance. There is a great deal of sense in this.
The GRA is clearly unable to deliver on the issue without an increased offer. The two-to-one rejection of a 4 per cent pay offer in their September ballot points to further entrenchment, although only 1 per cent to 2.75 per cent of that figure related to PULSE.
Garda management initially played down the row over PULSE, equating it with a refusal to drive a new patrol car, but rank-and-file gardai take a different view. They have rightly assessed that, with the streamlining of court procedures, overtime earnings will be reduced and they are therefore demanding a larger share of the cake.
Garda management insists that essential investigations will not be curtailed, but with the peace process holding firm and paramilitary violence at an all-time low, overtime earnings will be significantly reduced.
Mr Stone says his members are not averse to change but must be rewarded. He is also aware that the leadership misread the members' mood in the September ballot and that, with just over six months in his post as general secretary, his leadership style is being critically assessed.
Comparisons are inevitably being made with the nurses, who have leapfrogged gardai in pay after their leaders tested the Government's resolve. For their part, gardai are well aware of the fear that any absence from their posts could generate among the public.
Gardai are, of course, prohibited from taking strike action, but it would be foolhardy to predict the outcome if Garda management were to take refuge from the current dispute in the Garda disciplinary regulations.
Gardai also have a sworn obligation to discharge their duties to the best of their abilities, but equally the Government has an obligation not to take advantage of the unique position of the force.
A curtailment on the constitutional right to withdraw labour is a severe restriction, and urgent measures are needed to balance this constraint. Successive governments have ignored expert advice preferring, it would appear, to keep gardai under a political thumb.
A more long-term and imaginative negotiating policy is required as further inevitable changes kick in. A 1994 report compiled for the GRA outlined the need for "socialising" its members in the art of managing such change.
Gardai are trained to police our streets. They are not trade unionists and cannot be expected to be expert in trade union affairs.
More than a year has passed since their "blue flu" protests, and precious little appears to have been done. The time has come to implement some of the proposed changes, if we are not to prolong the sorry saga of shortchanging the guardians of the peace.