Mr John Dunne is to retire as director general of the Irish Business and Employers' Confederation. Earlier this week, he became chairman designate of the IDA. Mr Dunne was a principal architect of social partnership in Ireland over the past 13 years.

His retirement from IBEC will not take effect until November but the announcement is bound to spark off the succession race for the top management job in the leading representative body for business organisations in the State. IBEC will advertise in the media next week inviting applications for the position.

While Mr Dunne emerged as director general when the Federation of Irish Employers combined with the Confederation of Irish Industry in 1992 to form IBEC, his successor could be an outside appointment. Among potential internal contenders are several divisional directors, including Mr Turlough O'Sullivan, responsible for human resources, Mr Peter Brennan, responsible for EU affairs and strategy and Mr Brian Geoghegan, head of economic affairs.

The president of IBEC, Mr Richard Burrows, paid tribute to Mr Dunne's leadership last night. Over the past seven years Mr Dunne had made a major contribution "to the growth and success of IBEC and to the role we have played in developing a business orientated economic environment during that time. Ireland had changed dramatically and IBEC has evolved to meet new business needs."

Thanks in large part to Mr Dunne, IBEC was "in good shape. It is in a strong position to meet the challenges of the future and to continue serving its 7,500 members".

Mr Dunne was involved in negotiating all five national agreements since 1987. The only other senior negotiator involved in all the agreements is Mr Peter Cassells, general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.

Mr Dunne was educated at Belvedere and University College Dublin. He worked in the hotel industry and marketing in London before returning to Ireland to join the Federated Union of Employers in 1966. He was appointed director of the FUE in 1979 and became director general in 1988. He was the first director general of IBEC when the CII and FIE, as the reorganised FUE was called, amalgamated in 1992.