National pay talks are continuing at Government Buildings tonight.
Employer bodies and unions indicated this evening that the talks are at a critical and difficult stage, with some doubt as to whether a new agreement can be reached.
Tomorrow, Friday, has been set as the deadline for reaching agreement on a new partnership deal.
Entering the talks today, Turlough O’Sullivan, director general of the employer body Ibec, said this was probably the most challenging situation since the start of the partnership process in the late 1980s.
“As far as we are concerned we need an agreement that helps the competitiveness of the economy because we are in severe difficulty. If we can do that it will be worth the effort,” he said.
General secretary of the Irish Nurses’ Organisation Liam Doran said there were still “significant gaps” to be bridged.
“We are going to have to do a lot of hard talking if any agreement satisfactory to the union side is going to emerge.”