The Workplace Relations Commission is set to intervene in next weeks planned Garda strike.
The Department of Justice and the Garda Representative Association have agreed to attend talks in an effort to avert a series of strike days beginning next Friday.
The talks are expected to take place over the weekend.
Rank and file members of the Gardai are due to hold the first of 4 days of strike action next Friday.
The unprecedented action would see 10 and a half thousand members of the force down tools in a row over pay and conditions.
Negotiations have been ongoing between the Department of Justice and the GRA in an effort to reach agreement ahead of 4 planned strikes in November. Both sides today to seek the assistance of the WRC - a first for Gardai who traditionally do not have access to the industrial relations machinery of the state because they are not unionised.
Both sides are expected to attend talks over the weekend facilitated by the Workplace Relations Commisson.
A source close to teh talks says they will be held at a neutral venue
