Members of the Public Service Executive Union (PSEU) will vote on the formation of a “mega” union on Thursday.

The proposal to merge IMPACT, the Civil Public and Services Union (CPSU) and PSEU into one union to serve 80,000 civil servants has been in the pipeline for over two years, says Tom Geraghty, general secretary of the PSEU, which holds its annual conference today.

The benefits of the "mega" union include a greater degree of unity, shared assets, a greater range of services Mr Geraghty said on Newstalk Breakfast.

He said: “I think that if an employer is facing a large, well organised union, they will be less inclined to take action against employees.”

Later, when speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Mr Geraghty said it was not sustainable for public servants to have to wait until 2018 for their pay to be restored under the terms of the Lansdowne Road Agreement.

“If the emergency is over, as every politicians told us during the election, then the pace at which pay is restored should quicken,” he said.