The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) will sign the Government pay deal today following the decision by 83 per cent of members to accept it.
Shortly after yesterday's deadline for the national ballot of 2,078 sergeants and inspectors it was announced that 1,465 gardai had voted to accept the deal, and 301 had voted against.
Mr George Maybury, the AGSI general secretary, welcomed the result and the high turnout. "If we were to have listened to the vociferous minorities we might have thought this deal wasn't going to go through. But we're very pleased with the outcome."
The AGSI vote follows the acceptance by rank-and-file gardai of their version of the pay deal last week. Sixtyone per cent of GRA members supported the deal.
The association expects to return to talks with officials from the Departments of Justice and Finance at the end of next month. Mr Maybury said the first issue for discussion would be a pay review mechanism for gardai, and involvement in public pay talks.
"I think the second round of negotiations - the core productivity issues - is going to be a difficult enough process. It will take a lot of work. We'll go in with an open mind and take it from there, but we won't be prepared to sacrifice anything or anybody."
The core issues will relate to performance-management, civilianisation, new rostering arrangements and the information technology Pulse project.
The offer to AGSI members is similar to the GRA deal, ranging between 7.2 and 11 per cent across pay grades. Before-tax lump sums of between £2,862 and £3,581 should be paid to sergeants and inspectors by the end of the month.
This will mean inspectors with six years' service get an 11 percent increase from £24,618 to £27,326. Sergeants with 14 years' service get a 13.7 per cent increase which includes a long-service increment and takes their pay from £21,535 to £24,491.
The pay increases are expected to be processed and appear in weekly pay cheques by the end of the month.
