Government officials have told union leaders that it would be difficult to do anything to assist workers like those in SR Technics who face involuntary redundancy and the collapse of their pension funds.
ICTU General Secretary David Begg said they had had the most complicated discussion conceivable in which they considered a range of options for addressing the pension crisis.
He was speaking after a two-hour meeting between senior civil servants and the ICTU leadership.
Mr Begg said there was some scope for movement in some of the areas and possibly on pensions as well.
He said the ideal solution for ICTU would be a pension protection fund, but that that had been ruled out on cost grounds.
IBEC Director General Turlough O'Sullivan has said he feels positive about the potential for the Government, employers and unions to reach agreement on addressing the jobs agenda.
Yesterday's discussions had focused on unemployment measures and repossessions.
The Executive Council of ICTU is due to meet tomorrow morning to decide whether it is worth continuing social partnership talks on a national economic recovery plan.
Earlier, a senior trade unionist warned that the talks represented the final opportunity to produce proposals to form the basis of a new national economic recovery plan.
Unite Regional Secretary Jerry Shanahan said that if these proposals did not emerge today, all parties would finally realise that Government would not be responding to proposals put forward by ICTU regarding employment and pensions.
Elsewhere, the Tánaiste has said that possible changes to the minimum wage rate are currently being evaluated.
In the Dáil today, Mary Coughlan was asked if she was in favour of reducing it.
The Tánaiste said it was important to have a 'framework on wage policy' and that it must not be done in isolation.
She said that the minimum wage rate is being evaluated in the context of an overall wage structures and policy.
