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The Government has told trade unions that it wants to continue to reduce the number of people employed in the public service.

However at talks today, Government officials did not set out the level of reduction that will be sought in the coming years.

Speaking after talks at Government Buildings, the general secretary of Impact Peter McLoone said the Government had indicated its intention to reduce public sector numbers but "did not go into the level of detail that we would have wanted."

He said the Government had indicated that it wanted to continue with the moratorium on recruitment in the public sector introduced several months ago.

A Government spokesman said that officials had a general discussion with unions about the public sector but that no figures had been given.

Talks have now adjourned until tomorrow afternoon when they will examine payroll figures for various sectors within the public service including health, education, local authorities and the civil service.