NATIONAL pay talks are finally set to kick off in earnest this week — more than six months after they were first scheduled to start.

The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, has welcomed the resolution of the Irish Ferries dispute during talks that went on into the early hours of this morning.

Officials from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions met with gardaí today to finalise plans for a National Day of Protest in support of staff at Irish Ferries.

IN what has to be the understatement of the year, IBEC - the organisation that represents big business interests of this country - described the bizarre events in Irish Ferries as “not normal in Irish industrial relations.”