Talks between the Government and union officials over public sector pay broke down in the early hours of Friday morning as they failed to come to an agreement.

Talks had begun on Monday at the WRC when trade unions triggered a review clause within the current pay deal "Building Momentum", on the back of rising inflation.

Speaking to RTE on his way out of the meeting at 3am, Kevin Callinan, President of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions said there were "significant differences" between the two sides.

"While some progress was recorded, unfortunately the terms on offer were not something we felt we could recommend. We will now proceed to brief the affiliate unions of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions later this morning," Mr Callinan said.

"We note that the Workplace Relations Commission has asked both sides to reflect and we will be available in the event that they decide that further progress may be possible, even at short notice."

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While no details of any deal on the table were put forward by the President of the ICTU, he did say that "the ball is in the Government's court" as "the other side isn’t prepared to move and that was the position we found ourselves at this evening."

"It is also a matter for the WRC to make a judgement as to whether or not they believe further progress may be possible."

There was disappointment too from the Garda representative bodies who were left frustrated at the end of a long day of negotiations.

"We are disappointed not to have made more progress. While we made some small elements of progress, we are certainly disappointed that we haven't made more," said General Secretary of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors Antoinette Cunningham.

"The matter is adjourned so we won't get into the details. We have to reflect on what happened here today and we await to see when talks will resume.

"These are very challenging negotiations and this is a challenging environment we find ourselves in. We're not sure if we can achieve what we're setting out to achieve but we will certainly try very hard."