The Tánaiste and Justice Minister has said she is in no doubt about the seriousness of the threatened Garda strike. 

The Garda Representative Association says members will strike on four dates next month, although 999 calls will still be answered. 

Rank and file officers could yet be joined in the action by the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors.

In the Dáil, Minister Frances Fitzgerald appealed to the GRA to return to talks with the Department of Justice:  “Certainly there won’t be any grand standing about who approaches who first, I can tell you that.

“The important point is to get back into discussions and see how we can negotiate, it is in the interest in everyone in this country, it is in the interest of an Garda Siochana, as you rightly say, it is in the interests of the legal system, right across the board of course we want to resolve this.”