The Minister for Public Expenditure says the proposed new public pay deal is fair for both workers and for taxpayers.

Paschal Donohoe says he hopes public workers will approve the new deal agreed overnight, which will increase the pay of some newer workers by up to 10 per cent over three years.

Increases of that rate will be paid to up to 50,000 workers who entered the public service since 2013. Others will receive between 6 and 7.2 per cent over the same three-year period.

In exchange, workers will have to contribute more to their pensions - with the current pension levy, introduced as a temporary measure, being reduced but turned into a permanent fixture.

While workers will also be able to opt out of extra hours which were introduced over previous public pay deals, subject to the approval of local management, they will also receive a pay cut for doing so.

The deal will cost around  €880 million over three years - with €180m of that to be spent next year, using up around a third of the government's spare cash for 2018.

Trade unions say "they're not high-fiving" over the deal, which now goes to a vote of affected workers, but believe it's the best arrangement that could have been reached for now.

Our political correspondent Gavan Reilly reports: