The main political parties campaigning in this election agree that the social partnership model has made a positive contribution to the quality of life in this State. They are committed to ensuring that it should survive, if at all possible.
At the same time, there is an emerging consensus between politicians and trade unions that the old formula may have to be modified in order to make the process more flexible and responsive to changing circumstances. That approach contrasts with recent statements by IBEC, the employers' lobby group, which expressed serious reservations about the benefits of any new agreement for its members and argued that pay deals had come to be viewed by trade unions as the basis on which further claims could be based.
Concern that the social element of the process was being ignored was expressed yesterday by twenty-six national anti-poverty and equality organisations, in Dublin, when they withdrew in protest from a plenary session of the Partnership for Prosperity and Fairness. Accusing the Coalition Government of acts of bad faith, of undermining the rights of marginalised communities and of failing to uphold the principle of equality, the organisations said social partnership was more than trading tax cuts for wage moderation and industrial peace . In particular, they were critical about lack of consultation on the Disability Bill, the amendment to the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Acts; suggested changes to Equal Status legislation and the rights of Irish-born children of asylum seekers.
Their withdrawal, according to a statement, was intended to signal that the people they represented were no longer prepared to have their rights denied and to be excluded from the prosperity that most people in Ireland were experiencing. The protest may have encouraged Minister of State, Ms Mary Wallace, to announce, yesterday, the composition of an expert consultation team that will facilitate dialogue with representatives of the disability sector at a specially established forum over the coming weeks and months. The forum became necessary after the Government was forced to withdrawal its Disability Bill in the Dáil last month.
Pay determination, involving trade unions and employers, has always been at the heart of the partnership process, even though provision was made for a "third pillar" through the involvement of community and voluntary groups in recent years. Concern over breaches of past pay agreements and the prospect of higher wage expectations in the aftermath of the benchmarking process in June has led IBEC to question the usefulness of a new partnership agreement. Change is certainly required for the "one-size-fits-all" arrangement. But that is no reason for abandoning a process that has given us industrial stability and historic levels of economic growth, along with a degree of social partnership.
The gain for employers is reflected by statistics that show capital's share of the national income to have risen from 38 to 50 per cent since 1992.