Hayes: Government may settle for less than €300m target in pay talks

Junior Finance Minister Brian Hayes has said that the Government may lower its savings target for public-sector wages from €300m this year to €250m.

"We're not going to be doctrinaire about this," he said.

"What we want to see is the saving of a billion euro by 2015, and we're looking at alternative proposals in the context of those talks, which would obtain those savings, 2014, 2015, leading up to a billion euro of annualised savings.

"But it might be somewhat less than €300m this year, we'll just have to wait and see."

Such a move would have a significant knock-on effect on any Croke Park 2 agreement, which was initially rejected by the majority of union members around the country.

Those talks continued over the weekend among health sector unions.

This afternoon, the teachings unions - the INTO and the TUI - will begin negotiations, along with the Irish Federation of University Teachers, which, in the last hour, agreed to enter the talks.