NO AGREEMENT has been reached on the critical issues of pay and collective bargaining as the partnership talks enter their final days.
The Government, unions and employers are bracing themselves for a long day of negotiations today with the expectations that talks, which were due to conclude tomorrow, may well stretch into the weekend.
It is anticipated that Taoiseach Brian Cowen may intervene tomorrow to try and broker a deal.
Talks chairman Dermot McCarthy met with employers and unions at the end of yesterday's session to determine the situation with the talks.
Sources said there was a willingness among both sides to reach a deal on pay, but bridging the gap between employers' concerns about costs, and union concerns about rising inflation, was proving extremely difficult. "Each of the three sides, Government, unions and employers, have stated publicly that they want to do a deal," said one source. "Everybody knows everybody else's position in relation to pay, but nobody has put a figure on it yet. Today the cards are going to be turned up."
Union leaders believe that if no deal is reached by this weekend, it will be very difficult to reach any agreement on pay as it will be September before talks resume. By that time the economic situation may have worsened further.
