The chairman of the Public Services Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions has said the aim is to conclude the current talks with the Government on pay determination and reform by next weekend.
However Peter McLoone said that the process was very challenging and that there were still some very difficult issues to sort out.
Union leaders and Government officials held a plenary meeting this morning to take stock of talks held over the last week on reform plans in various parts of the public service such as health, education, local authorities and the Civil Service.
The controversial issue of pay is not expected to be address in the process until later in the week.
Meanwhile, the general secretary of the Civil Public and Services Union (CPSU) warned the Government not to threaten his members arising from industrial action in the Passport Office in Dublin on Friday.
He said that it would not be conducive to de-escalating the temperature if management started to threaten their members.
Government sources said over the weekend that the scenes in the Passport Office on Friday were unacceptable. The sources also indicated that Government could consider docking pay if such industrial action happened again.
Long queues formed at the Passport Office in Molesworth Street on Friday as people sought to obtain passports before the lunchtime closure. At one stage in the afternoon a group of people who had not got passports staged a sit-in at the office.
The CPSU on Friday blamed management at the Department of Foreign Affairs for what it described as the "debacle" at the Passport Office.
The CPSU said the Department of Foreign Affairs had issued a public statement saying the office would be closed on Friday afternoon without stating that it would reopen on Monday. The union said this caused many people to panic and to believe that the office would be closed indefinitely
The CPSU is to implement a ban on answering phones across the Civil Service this afternoon.