The social partners are continuing talks at Government Buildings tonight in an attempt to strike a new a national wage agreement.
The negotiations resumed this afternoon after eight hours of talks between employers and unions yesterday.
Both sides are still deadlocked on wage increases and observers are now predicting that the talks could go down to the wire later in the week.
Yesterday's talks were adjourned at around 10.30pm after discussions on non-pay issues such as pensions, agency workers’ rights and employment law failed break the impasse.
Leaving Government Buildings last night, Taoiseach Brian Cowen said that “serious engagement” had taken place although "significant issues" remained.
He said that it was too early to say whether a successful conclusion could be reached in the talks. Mr Cowen said that a lot of good effort was being made by all sides in the talks.
The general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Union (Ictu) David Begg said that there had been no progress that was discernible or tangible made in the talks yesterday.
He said that there had been a lot of “shuttle diplomacy” between the sides and that the chairman of the talks, the secretary general to the Government Dermot McCarthy, had believed that further talks today were warranted.
The general secretary of the trade union Mandate, John Douglas, said Government officials had been involved in meetings with the employers' side for much of yesterday and that the unions had “not really been engaged in the process”.
He said that no progress had been made on the area of low pay which his union believed was a “break issue”.
The general secretary of the Irish Nurses Organisation Liam Doran said that he could not say that any progress had been made and everything was “still in play”, although there was greater clarity about each other’s positions.
The director general of the employer’s group Ibec Turlough O’Sullivan said that there had been intensive engagement.
Unions and employers remain significantly apart on issues such as pay - particularly for low paid workers - as well as on non-pay issues such as collective bargaining rights in non-union companies.
Speaking earlier, Mr Cowen had indicated that a sustainable short-term solution may be possible until economic conditions improve. “There are areas of the economy that are competing, and there are other areas which have severe difficulties."
“We need to see if it is possible to come up with a solution that is affordable in the immediate term, to find some space to bring about changes for the better, against a very challenging international environment,” he said.
