Public sector unions demanding €1.4bn in pay restoration “must be realistic” or risk jeopardising the public finances, Government sources have warned.

Unions and Government face a collision course in upcoming negotiations over working hours.

Fianna Fáil's warning the Public Expenditure Minister they will be keeping a close eye on him to ensure there is no reduction in services to fund the public servants pay deal.

Government has come under sustained pressure to explain the €120m black hole which will have to be filled to deliver public sector wage increases.

Public service trade unions have welcomed the €38.33 fortnightly “down payment” for their members as a result of the Government’s decision to bring forward pay increases from April, but have warned that much more will be expected in a new deal later this year.

The union which represents the country’s community welfare officers has criticised a 60% drop in the amount paid out by the State in exceptional needs payments to those in financial difficulty.

The Government has “set a course to fail spectacularly” on its commitments on job security, the gender pay gap, and in-work poverty, the country’s largest public sector union claims.

The country’s largest public sector trade union, Impact, has demanded talks on a successor to the Lansdowne Road pay agreement must take place within the next 12 months before the current deal expires.

Other public transport sector workers now voicing disaffection and clamouring for more, writes Stephen Rogers

Talks on how much of the Government’s €750m public expenditure pledge will be given over to pay restoration for its staff will begin this afternoon, with the pension levy likely to feature high on the agenda over the coming days.

The trade union representing mid-ranking civil servants has said its members will withhold any further productivity in order to secure a restoration of pay in talks beginning next month.

An Post workers at the GPO in Dublin asked for a pay increase because they said it took them longer to clock-in under a new online system.

One of the country’s most senior public sector union leaders has warned public service workers not to get "over-expectant" about a restoration of pay and conditions mooted by the Government.

On Tuesday it was reported that Vision-net.ie, described as a business risk analysis firm, mused that the ‘hallmarks of an economic recovery’ were evident.

There is a distinct sense of unreality about growing union demands for pay rises for tens of thousands of civil servants.

The Department of Social Protection has been given the green light to outsource the 1,000 roles required to run its job activation scheme, JobPath, to the private sector.

A public service trade union has said public sector workers should be “first in the queue” for restoration of their pay levels before the Government considers tax cuts across the economy.

Tom Geraghty of the Public Service Executive Union (PSEU) was complaining yesterday that his members have suffered disproportionately in losing around €483 a month as a result of pay cuts, the pension levy, and higher taxes imposed during the current recession.

GARDAÍ were alerted to attacks, abuse, and threats against Department of Social Protection staff and clients in almost half of serious incidents recorded by employees over the last two years.

If the Government imposes a second pay cut of up to 7% in the space of three years on public servants, it will likely mean the loss of key public services if teachers, nurses, doctors, and civil servants choose to fight the cuts with industrial action.

The Irish National Teachers' Organisation and the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation have rejected the possible extension to the Croke Park agreement.

The Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said the Government will reflect on the decisions of unions on the proposed Croke Park II Agreement.

UNITE has rejected the revised Croke Park Agreement.

The Public Service Executive Union has voted to accept the Croke Park II proposals.

Government plans to save €1bn from the public service paybill under Croke Park II were given a major boost last night when the leadership of Siptu said it would be campaigning for a yes vote.

The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors begin a two-day meeting today to decide whether it will escalate a campaign against cuts to members’ premium payments.

The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation executive has decided not to issue a recommendation to its 32,000 members on whether to vote to accept or reject the €1bn in savings being sought under Croke Park II.

It may be less than one week since the Labour Relations Commission issued its recommendation on how to cut the public service pay bill by €1bn but already the deal’s survival hangs in the balance.

Representatives of rank-and-file gardaí will decide on Monday how to escalate their ongoing protest against the Government’s proposed cuts to their wage packets.

SIPTU leader Jack O’Connor posed a pertinent question just a couple of hours before the framework for Croke Park II became public.

The government’s spending watchdog is to scrutinise public-sector allowances in the wake of a review which only succeeded in abolishing one.

More than one in four civil service staff have witnessed their colleagues make racist remarks about clients or customers in the last year, a survey of racist attitudes in the service has found.

Suggestions by Tourism Minister Leo Varadkar that any follow-up deal to the Croke Park Agreement must include compulsory redundancies in the public sector were shot down by ministerial colleague Brendan Howlin yesterday.

The briefest consideration of two events yesterday may not be the perfect way to illustrate how people in the same society exist in parallel universes, but it is better than most.

Senior public servants have been warned the Government is looking for greaterefficiency as it revealed the wage bill for the sector will fall by one fifth by 2015.

Senior public servants have been warned the Government is looking for more efficiency as it revealed the wage bill for the sector will fall by a fifth by 2015.

The Public Service Executive Union (PSEU) has said the Croke Park Agreement is working.

The General Secretary of the Public Service Executive Union Tom Geraghty has said the Croke Park agreement is "working" and therefore "should be maintained".

Maintaining the Croke Park Agreement is likely to top the agenda when delegates of the Public Service Executive Union meet later for their annual conference.

Plans by the Government to abolish privilege days for civil servants have been rejected by an aribtration board.

THE former chief executive of the Irish Courts Service PJ Fitzpatrick is to chair the implementation body which will oversee the Croke Park deal on public service pay and reform.

The Croke Park deal on public sector pay and reform was effectively secured tonight after two of the country’s most powerful unions backed it.