The government's coming under increasing pressure to open talks on a brand new public pay deal – just four months after Lansdowne Road came into effect.
A series of pay claims are likely to dominate this morning's cabinet meeting.
The government's pay bill for next year already stood at 16.3 billion euro, nearly 30 cent out of every euro the State spends.
That's before the extra 40 million euro the Garda deal will cost, and the ASTI secondary teachers' union may add more in their current talks at the WRC.
And yesterday the IMO said it would ballot junior doctors for industrial action, after the government pulled out of talks on restoring a 'living out allowance', because it wants the discussion sent to the new public pay commission.
But that commission could be short-lived – SIPTU is already threatening to ballot 60,000 public workers for industrial action if the government doesn't open up new public pay talks by Thursday.
Other public unions could get on board when ICTU's public committee meets tomorrow.
It all adds up to a delicate balancing act for the government, at a time of huge uncertainty at home and abroad.
