IF nurses vote to accept the Labour Court award, about 5,000 paramedics in the health services are expected to seek similar increases.
While it is possible that other public service workers, such as gardai and prison officers, will make "knock on" claims, the tightly written terms of reference of the Labour Court recommendation will make it difficult for them to succeed.
The Labour Court recommendation says that the failure of successive governments to honour previous commitments to nursing unions places the nurses in a unique position vis a vis other groups".
The court was also careful in its recommendation not to link the new nurses pay scale to any closely identifiable group within the public service.
However, paramedics such as medical laboratory technicians, speech therapists, dietitians, occupational therapists, social workers, child care workers, radiographers and physiotherapists have strong traditional links with nurses.
There are about 5,000 people in these categories, with some of them, such as the speech therapists, already in dispute with the Government over their restructuring claims under the Programme for Competitiveness and Work.
Meanwhile senior Government sources have denied media reports yesterday that the Labour Court's award of an extra £30 million had the prior approval on Monday of a senior Government subcommittee, including the three party leaders.
No such meeting occurred, according to the sources. What did happen on Monday was that the Minister for Health, Mr Noonan, the Minister for Finance, Mr Quinn, and the Minister of State for Enterprise and Employment, Mr Pat Rabbitte, met to review negotiations and discuss contingency plans if the strike went ahead.
The three party leaders are only expected to become directly involved in the sub committee deliberations if there is a strike, according to the sources.
Representatives of the Departments of Finance and of Enterprise and Employment were monitoring discussions during the week to ensure that any settlement remained within the terms of reference of the PCW.
Both Departments are satisfied the Labour Court award will not have a "knock on" effect. One senior public service union source agreed last night. He said: "Evelyn Owens [the chairman of the Labour Court] didn't just bite the bullet, she sank her teeth into it."
However, another public service union leader said most of his members would feel the nurses had received far more than the PCW allowed. "But people who want to take on the Government will have to ask themselves if they have the same ability to shut down the system and the same amount of public sympathy as the nurses.