Gardaí consider exiting Croke Park II talks

Middle ranking gardaí are meeting this morning to decide whether to pull out of talks on Croke Park II.

The national executive of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors is meeting after Government negotiators in the talks confirmed they want cuts on a number of premium payments including those for working at the weekends, at night, and on public holidays.

As far as the association is concerned, those payments recognise its members’ frontline roles and also form too large a part of their wages to be removed without a fight.

Overall the gardaí are expected to find €60m of the required €1bn in savings sought by the Government under Croke Park II

Meanwhile, talks with other sectors of the public service will continue today.

Last night in a circular to his members, the general secretary of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, Liam Doran, said the talks “have primarily been exploratory in nature and no specific proposals have been tabled”.

“A particular focus has been on the potential savings that could be made with regard to the issues of agency expenditure (spending on agency nurses) and outsourcing of work, and further discussions will take place under these two headings,” Mr Doran added.