At the end of last month he told the Dáil that he did “not envisage further contact with any groups in regard to future changes in public service pay or pensions because the agreement we have is in place up to 2018.”

The minister has also told TDs he expects to be consulting unions on the establishment of a new public service pay determination process “in the coming weeks.” This was a reference to the Programme for Government commitment to establish a public service pay commission.

Unions are not surprised at the minister’s apparently hard public stance at this stage of the year-old Lansdowne Road Deal. The linked issues of accelerated pay recovery and future public service pay determination were flagged at an introductory meeting between Donohoe and public service union leaders – led by IMPACT’s Shay Cody – in early May.

Also in May, IMPACT’s outgoing president Jerry King said the union expected talks on a new public service pay deal to start within a year – that is in the first half of 2017. Calls for accelerated pay recovery were voiced by virtually every public service union at recent delegate conferences, and the issue is likely to be discussed at a meeting of ICTU’s Public Services Committee this week.

The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform says the public service pay bill will rise by €844 million a year over the lifetime of the Lansdowne Road agreement. There will also be a €90 million annual increase in public service pension payments.