Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe is planning talks with teachers’ unions who have signed up to the Lansdowne Road Agreement.

Minister Donohoe told the Dáil today that these talks with the INTO and TUI will centre on issues such as the pay of new entrants.

However, he has warned that pay restoration will not be applied for workers who have not signed up to the agreement, such as the ASTI and Garda Representative groups.

Minister Donohoe has also rejected calls for the immediate restoration of pay cuts for all public servants.

“The immediate appeal of all of the measures that were taken across that phase of our emergencies, the immediate cost of that would be €2.2bn per year to the State,” he said.

“And I cannot reconcile that figure with the need to fund all of the other public services that this House wants me to deliver.”