The 12 days of unpaid leave negate the need for pay cuts and therefore for strike, IMPACT general secretary Mr McLoone said. A number of areas remain to be fully examined, he added, including the exact mechanisms by which unpaid leave would be carried out in areas such as health and education.

"Clearly the position we are in is that these talks are more likely to proceed than fail, so we felt it was better to cancel Thursday [one-day strike] and spend the time completing an overall arrangement with the Government that will get us into the transformation [of the public service] and also deal with problems they have in 2010," McLoone said.

However, Mr McLoone's announcement left some parties very unhappy. Among these was the IT Tralee branch of the Teachers Union of Ireland, which called an emergency meeting on November 30 and adopted the following motions:

1. That this branch

• is appalled by the recent statements of Peter McLoone to the media that public servants must accept pay cuts in one form or another and by his previous statement at the 2009 Magill Summer School that public servants must provide better services at a cheaper cost despite the OECD conclusion that Ireland has a comparatively lean public sector;
  
  
• resolves that it is an utterly untenable and completely illogical position for its members to be taking industrial action to protect against wage cuts while the chief negotiator on our behalf adopts the contrary position; 
  
  
• demands the resignation of Peter McLoone as Chairman of the ICTU Public Services Committee and as a negotiator with the Government on behalf of the public service unions as it is clear that he does not represent the interests or views of the vast majority of public servants;
  
  
• holds that the only acceptable and sensible solution to the government financial difficulties is to rectify the cause of those difficulties, the collapse in taxation revenues, by the adoption of a level system of taxation that is equitable and capable of at least supporting the low level of public services already provided in Ireland;
  
  
• accepts that this means we all pay more taxes and are willing to do so.

2. That this branch

• is resolved that an indefinite all out strike across the whole of the public sector is the only appropriate action for the trade union movement in the face of reductions to public sector pay and conditions being used as an alternative to raising taxes.

www.petitiononline.com/MCLSTRKE/