Pay talks, which resumed today between unions and employers following contacts between the sides and the Government overnight, have adjourned until tomorrow.
The two sides met separately with the Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach, Mr Dermot McCarthy at Government Buildings in Dublin.
It is understood that no new formula was proposed and the gap between the sides remains as wide as when the talks collapsed before Christmas.
Discussions lasted almost four hours before they were adjourned.
Negotiations on finding a successor to the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness (PPF) are likely to continue through the weekend.
The employers' body, IBEC, remains committed to a six-month pay pause and had offered a 5 per cent pay increase over 18 months.
The unions want any deal to exceed inflation, which is running at just under 5 per cent, and are opposed to a pay-pause. Unions also want the pay increase to come within 12 months.
The consequences of failing to agree a deal are already becoming apparent. The Irish Timesrevealed this week that banking staff had submitted a 7 per cent pay claim.
Other unions are also lining up with free collective pay bargaining strategies - with most unions seeking increases of between 7 to 10 per cent. The TEEU union had submitted a 10 per cent pay claim from large manufacturing companies.
The resumption of the pay talks comes after the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment reported that over 25,000 people lost their jobs last year, an increase of 30 per cent on 2000.