Scrapping the Lansdowne Road pay deal could cost the State between €300m and €360m next year, according to the Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe.

Mr Donohoe says the results of the Garda vote on their Labour Court recommendations is due back next week.

However, he says it is impossible to put a cost on a possible replacement deal, because nobody knows what it would contain.

The minister said: “I’m not in a position to give you a cost, a figure, to a proposal that ICTU might make to me in the future.

“But what the figures are overall is that the cost of any kind of adjustment in relation to the Lansdowne Road Agreement per month is between €25m and €30m.”