Ringfence money or risk unrest, union tells politicians

In a message to members, the largest public service union Fórsa said it warned there is a possibility that no agreement will be in place to follow the current deal when it expires at the end of next year, at a meeting with the country's other public service unions.

General secretary Kevin Callinan said Fórsa and other unions needed to prepare for the possibility, while urging the Government to inject more urgency into addressing problems with the current Public Service Stability Agreement (PSSA).

Talks with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform have been under way since April.

They came after unions made fresh pay demands when the Government signed off on additional wage deals with nurses and hospital support staff following strikes.

Mr Callinan said broad agreement was reached on "a basic architecture for sectoral bargaining" to allow unions to deal with grade-specific issues in talks to take place early next year.

"But there has, so far, been no agreement on the amount of money that would be available to meet such claims," said the union message.

"More worryingly, the sectoral process is yet to be signed off at political level.

"This needs to happen soon because a near-certain election in the first half of next year will telescope the time available for talks on a PSSA successor.

"It was expected that these would take place in the spring or early summer of 2020, but it's now possible that an election - or post-election coalition talks - will be under way at that time instead."

It noted that pay rises under the current deal are budgeted for 2020, but next October's budget would have to make provision for 2021.