The report by the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) on a new national pay agreement, published in today's editions, should help to set the parameters for negotiations on a new partnership deal to succeed Partnership 2000. It is a very comprehensive document ranging over a broad canvas of economic and social issues. In essence, the report examines how the fruits of our current economic success might best be distributed but it is also mindful of the over-arching need to protect the competitiveness of the economy. The robust performance of the Irish economy over the past five years has yielded substantial benefits for all sectors of society. But as the NESC - which comprises all the social partners - acknowledges, the gap between rich and poor has actually widened. It makes a very salient point; despite the fact that social welfare payments, measured in percentage terms, have increased more than earnings over the 1987-99 period, relative income poverty rates have increased.
The NESC, which underlines how social inclusion is an integral part of its vision, makes the case for an ambitious new model in which all citizens, regardless of their economic and social status, enjoy access to health, housing, education and other social services. It sees a substantial increase in child benefit as the best means of assisting the poor. It also makes a convincing case for tax reform targeted at the less well-off. An increase in the standard personal allowance would, it says, "be the most effective way of helping the low-paid".
The report identifies some of the priorities for future economic and social progress. Most, including the need for extensive infrastructural development, are well known. But it does also give a commendable emphasis to issues like child-care and housing which have a daily impact on every citizen. Great progress have been made since the NESC launched its first strategy document in 1986. But it is worth reiterating, as the report states, that the economic and social advances of the past five years in particular were built on a shared vision of our economic and social priority first articulated by the NESC among others. The challenge now, at a time when the economic transformation has raised expectations and perceptions, is to build a new consensus. It will not be easy: the nurses' dispute and the simmering unrest among other public-sector workers underline how the traditional partnership model has fractured.
The NESC report makes few specific recommendations. It does not, for example, offer definitive proposals on profit-sharing and other models which have been advanced by some as the best means of rewarding workers, while protecting competitiveness. For all that, the report is an important building block towards a new agreement as it sets out the main economic and social framework. It is to be hoped that its scale of priorities will be reflected in the forthcoming £40 billion National Development Plan and in the December Budget.