FIRST, before anything else, let us welcome the  deal – albeit in principle – reached between the airport firefighters, their union and the Public Services Remuneration Committee.

A two-year agreement gives a cooling-off period after what has been one of the most unfortunate and heated of island industrial disputes.

It also gives time for the island’s battered reputation as a tourist and business destination to be restored.

An airport repeatedly shut down by industrial action – or inaction – was an embarrassment that could not be tolerated.

Inevitably, however, that cannot be the end of the matter. Questions have to be asked about how much this deal has cost, why a similar one could not have been reached a long time ago and how further disputes can be avoided.

The key difference, indeed the only difference, would appear to be a reconstituted PSRC. The excessively adversarial and obstinate approach that characterised the previous body – to the point where anything was better than taking a step backwards – has been replaced by a body apparently interested in genuine negotiating.

Of course, to do so, it needed something to negotiate with. Everyone knew how much was riding on this deal and, perhaps, there has been an element of throwing cash at a problem to make it go away.

But in what position were the States to penny pinch? If deputies were willing to spend £250,000 soothing political egos with a full-blown tribunal, what would the public reaction be to another airport closure over much smaller sums?

Having been instrumental in forging this deal, the new PSRC must be conscious that it is its own role that next comes under scrutiny. Is a central body, utterly divorced from managers running the staff, the best way to negotiate?

If the former PSRC was undermined by the chief minister and his HR manager taking action and breaking an unacceptable deadlock, how much more does it undermine each chief officer who must try to get the best out of his staff without holding any sway over key motivators such as pay and conditions?