Cutting the public sector pay bill by a billion euro is absolutely fair, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said.

The executive committee of the 24/7 Frontline Services Alliance is to meet today, to consider how to proceed if cuts in basic pay, premiums or allowances are not taken off the table at dicussions on the Croke Park extension.

THE Garda Representative Association (GRA) is to go ahead with plans for a ballot for industrial action despite a direct warning from Commissioner Fachtna Murphy that by doing so they face criminal prosecution.

Organisers say more than 5,000 frontline public sector workers took part in this afternoon's protest through Dublin city centre against proposed pay cuts.

TRADE unions and associations representing more than 100,000 public servants have reacted angrily to an alleged attempt to gag the military and prevent it from joining with an alliance fighting pay cuts proposed by the McCarthy report.