Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 9, inclusive, together.

The priorities of NESDO for the coming year are to promote complementary programmes of research, analysis and discussion by its constituent bodies, the NESC, NESF and NCPP, and to continue to provide shared administration and support services for those three bodies in order to obtain best possible value for money. It will submit reports, recommendations and conclusions by any or all of the constituent bodies to Government and arrange for their publication.

The NCPP continues to promote and provide support for change and innovation in our workplaces. Much of the recent focus has been on finalising the report of the forum on the workplace of the future, which we established on foot of a commitment in our programme for Government. The forum has been deliberating on how companies and organisations can best anticipate and adapt to change, how we can meet the needs of a changing workforce and how we can reshape our framework of policies and support structures to assist and stimulate workplace modernisation. The forum represents an unprecedented and comprehensive examination of our workplaces to create a vision of how those workplaces should develop to cope with the competitive and social challenges ahead.

It is hoped that this work, involving the collective efforts of Government, the social partners, State agencies, employers and employees, as well as national and international experts, will be brought to a conclusion over the coming weeks. The report will be presented to the Government prior to publication.

In addition to promoting implementation of the forum's recommendations, the centre will implement commitments contained in Sustaining Progress and the mid-term review of part two of Sustaining Progress, Pay and the Workplace. These include finalising of guidelines on employee financial involvement; the completion of a project to improve practices and procedures with regard to information and consultation in the context of the EU directive on information and consultation; and a project aimed at maximising the potential of enterprise partnership as a method of promoting workplace learning.

The costs which have accrued to my Department in respect of the NCPP since its establishment in 2001 up to the end of 2004 are just over €3.37 million. A provision of €1.041 million has been made to cover the centre's costs for this year.

Regarding the NESC, it recently completed its report, Housing in Ireland: Performance and Policy, published in December 2004. The council is completing a study entitled, the Developmental Welfare State. In the coming months, it will complete a report on the Lisbon strategy, focusing on the open method of co-ordination. The council will also undertake its three yearly strategic overview of economic and social policy, paving the way to negotiations on a successor to Sustaining Progress.

Other studies in the council's work programme include: migration policy; child poverty and child income supports; Ireland's first periodic social report; the taxation system in the medium term; competition and regulation in networked sectors; and a report on the innovation foresight.

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