A PUBLIC-service union has triggered the biggest equal-pay claim in the history of the state after lodging claims worth almost 400m on behalf of 10,000 clerical civil servants, writes Martin Frawley.

The mammoth claim follows the CPSU's victory last December when an equality officer ruled, in a handful of test cases, that civilian clerical staff brought into garda stations to release deskbound gardai to patrol the streets should be paid as much as the predominantly male gardai they were replacing.

Finance minister Brian Cowen, who was last year forced to pay out a then record 34m equal-pay settlement to the CPSU on behalf of the same clerical staff, is deploying a high-powered legal team to fight the claim.

Four arrested in crime crackdown

FOUR men were arrested in the Moyross area of Limerick early yesterday as part of the ongoing Operation Anvil into crime gangs. Gardai said that the four men, aged 18, 21, 21 and 41, were arrested during a number of planned searches of houses in Moyross. As well as a quantity of ammunition, four firearms . . . two rifles and two sawn-off shotguns . . .

were also seized during the raids. Operation Anvil was launched in May of last year in an attempt to crack down on organised crime.

Teen charged in link to shooting

A 16-YEAR-OLD boy was yesterday charged with driving the stolen vehicle from which shots were fired at a garda sergeant last Wednesday.

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was charged in Dublin district court with possession of a firearm and with driving a stolen vehicle. He was arrested after the shooting of garda sergeant Mark Clarke, who was wounded in the chest and hand after coming under fire from a passing vehicle.