Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin has again signalled that he intends discussing the reversal of pay cuts with public sector unions.

Mr Howlin told the Dáil today that, as he had indicated during the summer, he intended to open negotiations with the unions.

He added he would “open the books in the same open way as I did in the negotiations for Haddington Road and come to an orderly and, I hope, fair mechanism for unwinding the emergency provisions that were necessitated by the economic collapse”.

The Minister was replying to Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins who pressed him to give an indication of his re-engagement with the unions in terms of timescale and figures.

Earlier this week the Government is understood to have floated the suggestion of offering additional annual leave on a once-off basis to thousands of lower-paid civil servants in return for changes to the way they are paid.

The Civil Public and Services Union (CPSU) told members the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform had indicated possible annual leave “incentives” if they agreed to move to being paid on a fortnightly basis.

The 13,000 members of the CPSU, who include clerical officers and staff officers, are currently paid on a weekly basis.

No details of the nature of possible scale of the additional leave on offer were set out.