A senior trade union leader has said that talks today represent the Government's last chance to produce proposals which would form the basis of a new national economic recovery deal.
Arriving at Government Buildings this afternoon, Jerry Shanahan of the Unite trade union said if these proposals did not emerge today all the parties would finally realise that Government would not be responding to measures proposed by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) on employment and pensions.
Ictu has put forward three priority areas to be addressed in the talks with Government. These are a €1 billion State investment in job protection and creation, assistance for private sector pension schemes facing serious difficulties and measures to help people in mortgage arrears facing home repossessions.
The talks today are focusing on Government proposals for pension reforms.
The executive counctil of Ictu is to meet tomorrow to decide whether it is worthwhile to continue in talks on a national recovery plan.
However Mr Shanahan signalled that talks with the Government yesterday in relation to employment measures had been very positive. He said that there had been a lot more progress made yesterday than in the previous six months.
"I finally got the impression that the Government was starting to respond to creative ideas to support people in employment rather than providing passive income support," he said.
He was it was important to keep people in jobs rather than allowing them to drift onto the unemployment register.
