Teaching unions have reacted with anger and "bitter" disappointment to the contents of the benchmarking report on public pay, while nurses' representatives have dismissed claims by the body that their issues are beyond its remit.
The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) this evening said teachers had made it clear in their benchmarking submission that there was a "significant gap" between teachers' earnings and those in the private sector.
"Second-level teachers have delivered a good education service to the community; the Benchmarking Body has not delivered a good salary to teachers. In this context all teachers will be seeking increases in the next round of national pay talks to compensate for this disappointment."
The Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) said the report offered "a mixed bag" for teachers, but insisted said primary teachers will be "dismayed and angry" that they are not to receive any increase in salary.
John Carr, general secretary of the primary teachers' union said: "The increased allowances for all primary school principals and deputy principals are welcome, especially in light of the overall trend of benchmarking recommendations. More needs to be done but this is a welcome start."
However, Mr Carr warned that the failure to increase salaries could have further consequences and could make the negotiation of the next public service pay round "more problematic".
Mr Carr said: "Teachers like other workers are seeing living standards eroded. National agreements over the past twenty years have produced a degree of fairness and a sharing of prosperity. Now it appears that those on modest salaries are to pay the price for the economic slowdown while those on already large salaries continue to take large increases."
In a joint statement the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) and the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) reacted angrily to the report which said the "claim by nurses for parity with the therapeutic grades generally is beyond the terms of reference of the body".
In a statement nurses said the claim was "just the latest in a series of refusals, by third parties including the Labour Court and the National Implementation Body, to deal with this core pay issue on behalf of nurses and midwives."
"It is absurd in the extreme to suggest that the pay of 25,000 staff nurses/midwives cannot be fairly assessed, and valued, for what they do," INO General Secretary Liam Doran said.
Siptu's national nursing official, Louise O'Reilly said nurses had been undervalued in the second report of the benchmarking body
"In our submission to the benchmarking body, Siptu pointed out the ongoing difficulties over recruitment and retention of nursing staff," she said. "We are dismayed that the body does not seem to have taken account of the nature of this growing crisis in the health service.
"We made a compelling case to the benchmarking body for substantial pay increases for our nursing members and while we welcome the awards made to senior nurse managers, the work of the ordinary nursing grades continues to be undervalued."