A successor to the Croke Park II deal - formally called the Haddington Road Agreement - has been published. It contains the recommendations of the Labour Relations Commission (LRC). The LRC which brokered the deal says the positions in the document represent the limit of what can be achieved by negotiation between the parties.

Earlier SIPTU warned that the latest set of proposals do not mean a deal has been done. The National Executive of the Union is meeting to discuss the proposals after their 63,000 members rejected the initial deal last month.

Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin has welcomed the publication of the recommendations, saying "the open engagement by all parties in the recent negotiations is to be welcomed".

Legislation for cuts also published

The government has also published legislation to give effect to draft agreements reached during the recent LRC talks.

It says the legislation is needed if direct pay reductions are to be applied to the pay of any public servants.

The Department of Finance says it is "necessary regardless of whether the proposed reductions are the subject of agreement with the public service unions and associations. The legislation also confirms the Government’s ability to make the necessary savings should collective agreements not be reached with the unions, by setting out a number of contingency measures".

It will be debated before the Houses of the Oireachtas next week.

The government adds that the legislation makes provision for the preferred option - which is to reach agreement with its employees "by allowing for exemptions from the terms of the Bill relating to increments in the event of a collective agreement being lodged with the LRC".