Official figures show that pay growth in the public sector has slowed in the first three months of this year.
The Central Statistics Office said average weekly earnings in the public sector rose by 3.6% in the year to March, slowing from 4.2% three months earlier.
Excluding health, the number of people working in the public sector in March was 258,000, up 6,300 from a year earlier. Including health, employment was 368,300. The number of people working in the health sector fell marginally to 110,300 over the year.
