SIPTU will ballot its members next week as the prospect of 60,000 striking public sector workers looms.

SIPTU has given the government one week to start talks on a new national pay deal. The country's largest trade union will ballot its 60,000 on widespread industrial action unless the government agrees to convene new talks by the beginning of February. SIPTU's Jack O'Connor set a deadline of next Thursday before authorising any group covered by the Lansdowne Road agreement to initiate industrial action.

O’Connor said: “We utterly reject the assertion that there is no money and that it is a choice between pay increases and services for the public.

“This is an absolutely false dichotomy. The fact of the matter is that the Government made choices in the budget. For example, it decided to continue to gift business in the hotel and hospitality sector with special VAT concessions costing more than €600 million per annum at the tax-payers expense. They chose to do so despite the fact that the industry has fully recovered.

“Moreover, they chose to retain this very costly VAT concession notwithstanding the fact that employers in the industry continue to refuse to participate in the Joint Labour Committee to negotiate some improvement for their employees who are the lowest paid workers in the country.

“At the very least, the Government should have insisted that generous concessions at the tax-payers expense, which are no longer necessary, should be accompanied by some modicum of social responsibility.”

He added that it was not too late for the government to amend the Finance Bill and to open up extra funding for public sector workers.

“This could be done by amending the provisions relating to the taxation of vulture funds and others engaged in property speculation as well as radically tightening up on tax evasion.

“We fully respect the right of every trade union to take such action as it deems necessary, in the interests of its members, and especially to address the injustice of lower entry rates. However, the problem is that once and group embarks on a solo run, everyone else will have to follow.

“This is because it could lead to a situation that any resources that are available will be absorbed in settling these individual disputes and there will be nothing left for anyone else. Accordingly, it is now imperative that the Government sets an early date for the commencement of talks to renegotiate the Lansdowne Road agreement.”