Analysis:Ironically as political leaders in Scotland indicate they intend to borrow the Irish model of social partnership, the social partners here will have to decide in the coming months whether they want to continue with the process.
At a meeting in Dublin Castle today the Taoiseach is expected to formally invite the parties to engage in talks on the next phase of the national agreement, Towards 2016.
However, it is expected that it could be several weeks - probably April - before these talks get under way in earnest.
All parties acknowledge that the process will not be easy. Before any new deal is finalised - and indeed in some cases before the talks even begin - there are a significant number of issues which will have to be addressed.
Aside from pay - which itself will prove highly controversial - there are a number of contentious matters such as trade union representation rights, pensions and improved protection for staff recruited through employment agencies which trade unions will be seeking to have addressed.
However, employers are expected to oppose any new measures which could impact on competitiveness. The director general of employers' group Ibec, Turlough O'Sullivan, has said that it would be against any move which would make the labour market less flexible.
He said that employers needed to be able to make changes in work practices quickly in order to win back competitiveness which had slipped in international terms over recent years.
Public attention in any forthcoming talks is likely to focus on pay and already unions and employers are shaping up for a major row on this issue.
The unions have signalled that they will be looking for increases "significantly above inflation".
However, employers maintain that pay rates in Ireland have been growing at twice the pace of other euro zone states and that pay moderation is "an urgent requirement".
The Government also has called for wage restraint.
The unions will argue the bulk of the 10 per cent rise under the current agreement was eroded by higher-than-expected inflation.
The Irish regional secretary of Unite, the second largest union, Jimmy Kelly, said that it would be seeking rises that would be substantially higher than inflation.
Unite is also to seek additional provisions for low-paid groups as well as the introduction of a local bargaining clause to allow for talks on further top-up increases in highly-profitable sectors.
However, even before the issue of pay is raised, there is likely to be an argument over how inflation should be measured. O'Sullivan said it was wrong to use the consumer price index as a measure of inflation in the talks as the Government "had already compensated those facing higher mortgages through increased mortgage interest relief".
The talks will also have to deal with the fall-out from the recent benchmarking process which recommended no special increases for most rank-and-file civil and public servants.
Unions are concerned that the benchmarking process confirmed a trend already seen elsewhere that pay at the top is rising at a much faster rate than for lower- and mid-ranking staff.
The unions maintain that the public sector is beginning to mirror what has been happening in the private sector. They argue that there is now a general issue of pay equality that has to be addressed.
While the Taoiseach is expected to invite the social partners to talks on the new deal, there is no certainty that the unions will agree to participate.
The country's largest union, Siptu, will have to hold a special conference to determine whether it should take part and its leaders have already set down a number of pre-conditions.
Siptu president Jack O'Connor said that the Government will first have to make progress on commitments in the existing Towards 2016 agreement which have not yet been implemented.
He said that the Employment Rights Compliance Bill, which deals with employment protection measures agreed in the aftermath of the Irish Ferries dispute, had still not been published.
However, even if the main trade unions do agree to enter talks, there are a number of issues which are being flagged as possible "deal breakers".
Both Siptu and Unite as well as other unions are seeking legislation to ensure that agency workers - who often have lesser terms and conditions - are treated in the same manner as regular staff in companies.
The unions are also expected to look for new rights to allow them to represent workers in non-union companies.
Legislation introduced in the early years of this decade allowed employees who joined a union in companies where collective bargaining did not exist to be represented on workplace issues as far as the Labour Court. However, many trade unions believe that these measures were effectively emasculated as a result of a ruling of the Supreme Court last year in a case brought by Ryanair.