Congress: Pay deal is best available

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions says the proposed public sector agreement which emerged on Tuesday is the "best approach" to protect public servants.

At a meeting this afternoon the Public Services committee of ICTU said that it is up to individual unions to determine the views of their members, who will have the final say on whether the deal is accepted or rejected

ICTU is also warning public sector workers not to rely on what it calls "ill-informed views of external commentators",

It said the deal is the best approach to protecting public services - and the people who deliver them - and urged people to take time and read the agreement in full before voting.

"It's a complicated agreement and it comes at a very difficult time so it's not like anything we've ever seen before," said ICTU spokesman Bernard Harbour.

"So the advice from the Public Services Committee of ICTU today is that the membership take time to look at this, to raise questions with their unions if they are not clear about the implications of any aspects of it, and then to vote on it on the basis of understanding the agreement, rather than some of the statements that have been made over the last couple of days."

Meanwhile the Dublin branch of the TUI has said they will heed their Executive’s call to reject the proposed public sector deal with Government.

The teachers' union also said that extra working time for teachers under the deal would amount to a 5% pay cut.

The TUI attacked the reform package at a joint conference with representatives from the SIPTU education branch, the INMO and UNITE.

Ben Bishop from the Dublin TUI said as far as they are concerned, the deal is already dead in the water.

"The deal has already fallen apart," Mr Bishop said.

"If we turn down this offer nobody else is going to negotiate with them because it has effectively fallen apart now.

"The Government has to look at other ways of bailing out the banks. They can no longer use the public service.

"They refuse to go to where the capital is. They constantly attack the public service because they are seen as an easy target."