Acceptance of pay deal increasingly unlikely

AS THE Government plans for its most challenging budget to date amid the news of its banking sector bailout, it is looking increasingly unlikely that it will be able to rely on the national wage deal to set its exchequer pay bill for the coming year.

A deal would mean the Government could bank on an 11-month pay pause in the public sector, which would mean it would not have to account for wage increases until the start of September 2009.

That break from an increased wage bill would afford the Government some breathing space as it tries to ride out the storm of the current crisis.