The Cabinet has not yet taken the steps necessary to implement the significant pay increases for top Ministers, judges, civil servants and other senior State officials, Minister for Finance Brian Cowen has said.
"We agreed to the recommendations. I don't want to back away from that. Every government before did the same," he told Today FM's The Last Word.
Last night, Government sources repeatedly emphasised the fact that a statutory instrument needed to trigger the awards had not been put to and accepted by the Government.
However, it is far from clear whether there is any genuine intention within the Government to abandon the pay rises in the face of negative public opinion.
Even if there is a decision, it will not be made quickly because trade unions would not give them any concessions in return when social partnership talks begin next February.
Indeed, there are many in the trade union movement who would be uncomfortable with the Government using the issue as a bargaining counter in the coming pay talks.
Accusing the Opposition of "political hypocrisy", Mr Cowen said Fine Gael and Labour politicians, who did not accept a pay award when they took power in the mid-1990s, "had no objection to accepting the payments when they were backdated after they had left power".
