The Taoiseach will today step up pressure on bodies thinking of rejecting the new social partnership deal by promising access and influence to those who remain inside the partnership process.
In a speech in Dublin, Mr Ahern will promise new measures to reduce the cost of insurance and to improve waste management, portraying these as concessions to supporters of social partnership. In a blunt message to organisations that are thinking about "walking away" from social partnership, he will pledge high-level political engagement with those who stay inside the process.
His comments come as trade unions begin the process of deciding their attitude to the deal. Union members across the State will vote in individual union ballots in the coming weeks, with the final outcome to be known at a special delegate conference of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions on March 26th.
While all previous partnership deals have been approved by ICTU, approval is not seen as a foregone conclusion on this occasion. Adding to Government concerns, the main farming organisations have not recommended the deal to their members, saying it does not adequately address their income crisis. Members of the so-called "social and community pillar" - including the Society of St Vincent de Paul and the Simon Community - have also been critical of the deal.
The Taoiseach is expected to announce a study of the insurance industry by the Competition Authority to see if there are any anti-competitive practices. In addition, he will establish a ministerial oversight committee to supervise the implementation of various measures designed to reduce the cost of insurance.
The committee will be chaired by the Tánaiste, Ms Harney, and will include the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, and the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell.
Mr Ahern will also announce the commitment of money to waste management programmes, one of the non-pay elements of the partnership deal.
Mr Ahern is due to make his remarks at the official launch of the National Economic and Social Development Office. The new office incorporates the National Economic and Social Council, the National Economic and Social Forum, and the National Centre for Partnership and Performance.
The Building and Allied Trades Union, representing bricklayers, carpenters and related craft workers, is advising members to reject the new national partnership agreement in a ballot underway next week. The union's national executive issued the call for rejection at a meeting in Dublin last Saturday.
The "one size fits all" pay terms for private sector workers are entirely inappropriate to the building industry, BATU general secretary Mr Paddy O'Shaughnessy said.
"The BATU executive is concerned about the lack of transparency at various stages in the negotiations process that led to this agreement," he said.