Social Pacts in Ireland: Programme for Prosperity and Fairness

Period: 2000-2003 (Published Feb 2000)

Negotiating Parties: Nineteen organisations (employers, trade unions, farmers and the community and voluntary sector) plus government

Goals of the pact:

• Fiscal correction;
• Achievement of higher living standards and improvements of the environment for work;
• Establish economic and social foundations of long-term prosperity.

Matters agreed:

• Improvement of living standards and workplace environment (taxation, pay and pensions, social welfare payments, improved public services and the enhancement of workplace relations through partnership through lifelong learning and through the development of equal opportunities and family friendly policies)
• Modernisation of civil service, education sector, health sector and local authorities
• Detailed annex of draft agreement on pay and conditions of employment between Irish Congress Trade Unions and Employer Organisations      
• Enhancing competitiveness and simultaneously facilitating economic inclusion through:
• Improvement of public transport
• Improvement of infrastructure and service delivery
• Balanced regional development
• Rural development
• Development of small business and services
• Industrial policy with particular emphasis on vulnerable sectors
• Efficient and competitive construction sector
• Ensuring affordable housing (measures to improve accommodation supply and affordability)
• Energy policy (enhance economic competitiveness for business, support employment and ensure secure supply)
• Agricultural competitiveness within the context of EU and WTO membership and the National Development Plan 2000-2006
• Competitiveness of the food, marine and forestry industry
• Social inclusion and equality:
• Ensuring income adequacy (introduction of statutory minimum wages, tax provisions, improvement of social welfare payments and insurance system etc.)
• Improving social inclusion of the urban disadvantaged (through local development, tackling drug problems, community development programmes)
• Improving rural poverty through local development framework
• Improving local governance
• Targeted investments in disadvantaged areas
• Ensuring social and affordable housing and accommodation (for the poor, homeless, students and travellers)
• Promoting the emergence and consolidation of a social economy
• Supporting voluntary efforts and participation
• Improving health infrastructure and facilities
• Ensuring decent income for older people
• Equality through improved legislative framework, institutional support and measures to deal with discrimination because of gender, disability, and social status (such as refugees and travellers)
• Successful adaptation to continuing change through
• Lifelong learning (better early childhood education, adult and mature students education, better skilled teaching profession, special needs education, education in response to changing needs, reduction of barriers to education participation, etc.)
• Labour market improvements (better access especially for the disadvantaged, consultations, community employment scheme, national employment service reform, active labour market programmes, and monitoring)
• Childcare and family friendly policies (improvement of childcare facilities, regulatory framework, and family support)
• Promotion of the information society
• Promotion of North-South partnership
• Building of international relations (EU, WTO, ILO etc.)
• Renewing partnership
• Strengthening social partnership at the national, local and enterprise level (building on the progress made under Partnership 2000)
• Recognising the importance of monitoring and evaluation
• Detailed proposals of how to improve the implementation of agreements
• Enhanced role of the National Centre for Partnership and Performance (NCPP)¹ to develop guidelines to assist enterprises in embarking on and successfully putting in place partnership arrangements.  NCPP will now be located within the Office for National Economic and Social Development alongside the NESC and the NESF.

Economic and social background: Rapid economic growth has led to infrastructural bottlenecks in housing, transport, telecommunications and electricity generation.  Housing cost has soared and traffic problems erode both economic efficiency and quality of life in Dublin.  The tightening of the labour market has resulted in a significant increase in wages in some sectors and also in immigration.  Increase in female employment has made it urgent to develop and improve childcare facilities.

Institutions involved: The government departments to implement programmes and NESC, NESF to monitor progress in consultation with social partners (tripartite plus).

Action taken:

• A wide range of policy measures taken in partnership, including:
• Local initiatives to address the issues of the disadvantaged (RAPID programme was developed to deliver the commitment of priority investment under the National Development Plan in 25 urban disadvantaged areas. Promotion of local authorities’participation in local development)
• Local employment services developed
• NAPS: Poverty proofing exercise (statistical overview), pilot social inclusion units established in some local authorities in conjunction with RAPID programme
• Housing: “Action on housing”programme to increase local authority housing, remove infrastructural constraints, reviewed and substantially increased income eligibility.
• Wide range of policies and agreements on welfare to work strategy, tax reforms, promotion of women in labour markets, immigration.

Impact:

• Overall results: a mixed picture
• Economic and employment performance: productivity and employment growth match impressive economic success.  However, regional imbalance in performance detected.
• Housing: decreasing purchase affordability - policy action is needed
• Mixed results on the poverty front: consistent poverty² (overarching objective of the NAPS) has been progressively reduced since 1994, yet relative income poverty has increased over the period

Comments: This pact is an extension of the Partnership 2000, with a slightly wider focus.  It is strongly connected with the National Anti-poverty Strategy and the National Development Plan 2000-2006.  The partnership extended its focus to new areas such as housing, transport, urban planning, life-long learning and family friendly policies.

Reference:

Rory O’Donneell and Colm O’Reardon (2000) “Social Partnership in Ireland Economic Transformation”. In Giuseppe Fajertag and Philippe Pochet (ed.) Social Pacts in Europe- New Dynamics. ETUI

National Economic and Social Council (2002) Benchmarking the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness. Dublin: NESC

National Economic and Social Forum (2002) Third Periodic Report on the Work of the Forum. Forum Report no. 21. Dublin: NESF

Full text of the agreement

1. Ex National Centre for Partnership

2. Defined as disposable income below 50 or 60 per cent of average income combined with enforced lack of certain basic necessities