Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has said it was "simply not affordable" for the Government to extend pay rises across the board in the public sector.
Although pay restoration for public sector workers would come in time, it could not all happen in one year, he said.
Speaking at a meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Brussels, Mr Noonan said the Labour Court proposals for gardaí were "more generous than the Government had anticipated" but that they were within the confines of the Lansdowne Road Agreement.
Last week, a planned strike by both the Garda Representative Association and the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors was called off after both groups decided to consider a Labour Court recommendation in a dispute over pay.
He said that Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Paschal Donohoe would now take soundings from the wider trade union movement, but he insisted that there was sufficient flexibility within the LRA where specific issues arose, and that that flexibility could extend to secondary school teachers.
However, he said, the "generosity" reflected in the garda settlement could not be applied to other sectors.
Mr Noonan said: "It's simply not affordable if that was extended across the board.
"But there was always provision within Lansdowne Road to tailor settlements towards individual difficulties in different sectors, and that's what has been done here.
"It was done previously with the firemen, it was done with the primary teachers - INTO and TUI - and if the ASTI would negotiate there is a formula within Lansdowne Road that would solve that as well. So there has to be flexibility," he said.
Mr Noonan said that there would eventually be pay restoration, but not immediately.
He said: "Lansdowne Road can't have the rigidity that prevents settlements, but the pay of public servants and civil servants will have to be restored in fairness and a sense of justice and treating all our workers equally and our citizens equally.
"It will have to be restored, but over time ... We just don't have over a billion euro to do it all in 2017."
Mr Donohoe is believed to have met with the Public Service Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Union this afternoon to discuss issues and concerns that arise from the Labour Court recommendation on garda pay last week.
Both parties are understood to have agreed to support moving forward with a collective pay policy agreement and further contact is expected to take place.
Campaigner warns pay claims threaten services
The head of the Disability Federation of Ireland, independent Senator John Dolan, warned that restoration of vital public services will be set back by concessions on public service pay.
He has challenged the Taoiseach to hold the line in resisting such demands to prevent triggering of a second recession for people with disabilities.
Speaking in Dublin this morning, Mr Dolan said that no Government should allow itself to be bullied into a situation where it has to concede the reasonable and long-awaited expectations of people and families who urgently need to see major improvements in public services.
He warned that if pay claims domino across the public service, this will only succeed in wrecking the restoration and development of vital services and undermine the country's recent hard-won economic sovereignty.
"We have witnessed over recent days the obvious start of the unravelling of the discipline of the Landsdowne Road Agreement," he said.
Referring to the settlement proposed last week over the dispute with the GRA and the AGSI, Mr Dolan said the €290m allocated for increased pay next year is now breached by in excess of €40m and that this was before any settlement of the ASTI dispute.
He noted that other public service unions are now lining up with demands for pay improvements.
"Our Government has said it wants to have a strong economy so that people can live in a just and fair society and have the level of public services that are necessary'" Senator Dolan said.
"This extra funding now being released on pay increases can only come from two sources, namely increased tax revenues or reductions in services. Government has set itself against increased taxation.
"Yet again 600,000 disabled people, their families and almost 200,000 carers will be paying the bill unless the Government stands up and fights for the services that we so badly need," he added.
"I am now challenging the Taoiseach and his Cabinet to hold the line because if they don't they are effectively triggering a second recession for people with disabilities - and this is as unacceptable as it is unjust."
