The Government is prepared to make substantial resources available to fund a new 10-year social partnership programme, Department of Finance officials said yesterday.
In an upbeat briefing at Government Buildings, officials reiterated Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's view that a new national agreement should focus on long-term initiatives. Previous social partnership deals have run for periods of three years only.
A consensus is emerging between the Government and the four social partnership "pillars" - employers, unions, farmers and the community and voluntary sector - that a longer-term strategy would now be appropriate. However, the pay element of any new agreement would be negotiated at intervals of up to three years.
Yesterday's briefing marked the outset of talks on a successor to Sustaining Progress, which will last until mid-March.
Cori Justice Commission spokesman Fr Seán Healy said afterwards that it was clear that substantial resources would be available to fund partnership initiatives in the years ahead. It was the community and voluntary sector's view that Ireland had substantial social infrastructural deficits in areas such as social housing and public transport which needed to be addressed. Shortfalls in social provision, in areas such as healthcare, education and disability services, had also been identified.
"We would be hopeful that any new national agreement would take substantial steps towards addressing the social infrastructure and social provision deficits Ireland is facing," he said.
Eric Conroy, of the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed, said: "The partnership talks have to take into account that there are currently over 160,000 people signing on the live register and that the high redundancy figures for 2006 have continued where 2005 left off. We are nowhere near full employment when we have the misery of 28,000 people in long-term unemployment."
Yesterday afternoon, talks began between the Government, employers and unions on pay and workplace matters. These are being held as a separate strand within the overall negotiations on a new deal.
Employer representatives outlined their view that pay increases should be kept in line with those in Ireland's EU competitors, which would mean pay rises at around or below the current inflation rate of just under 3 per cent. Union negotiators, however, said that they were not prepared to discuss pay until progress had been made on their demand for new measures to protect employment standards.
Ictu president Peter McLoone said that the Government and employers now had a clear understanding of the unions' concerns in this area. However, Ibec industrial relations director Brendan McGinty said that employers would not accept any measures which interfered with the operation of a flexible labour market.
The employer-union talks are due to resume tomorrow, following bilateral discussions both sides will have with Government officials today.
