Michael Ahern (Cork East, Fianna Fail)

During the past 20 years, the successive social partnership agreements have reflected the unique challenges and opportunities of their time, and injected a substantial measure of stability and confidence for all sectors of the community, including investors. It has created and sustained the conditions for remarkable employment growth, fiscal stability, restructuring of the economy to respond to new challenges and opportunities, a dramatic improvement in real living standards, through both lower taxation and lower inflation, and a culture of dialogue which has served the social partners but, more importantly, the people of this country very well.

All social partnership agreements have included provisions for the orderly processing of grievances and disputes and frameworks dealing with industrial peace and the pursuit of industrial action in regard to matters covered by the agreements. An indication of the impact of this aspect of the agreements is given by the trend over the period of reduction in days lost because of industrial action, from 260,000 days in 1987 to less than 7,500 days in 2006, the lowest since records began in 1923. CSO figures for the third quarter of 2007 show that no work days were lost as a result of industrial disputes during that period. While there can be no room for complacency, these statistics reflect the stability of the industrial relations environment and the increased willingness of employers, workers and trade unions to resolve potential disputes either at workplace level or, if necessary, through the utilisation of the available dispute settling services, such as the Labour Relations Commission and the Labour Court.

In addition, institutions of social partnership play a significant role in ensuring delivery of the industrial stability and peace provisions of the national agreements. In this context, the national implementation body serves as a forum where the Government, employers and trade unions can work together to help ensure a positive industrial relations climate for economic and social progress.

Needless to say, social partnership was not solely responsible for the dramatic turnaround in our economic and social fortunes, but it was a key factor because it enabled us, Government, employers, trade unions, farmers and the community and voluntary sector, to develop a consensus about the overall direction of our economic and social policy and to work together to achieve our shared vision of the future.

Our model for partnership is unique and adapted to Irish needs, enabling us to manage rapid change successfully and build on support for the changes necessary to meet our economic and societal goals of growth and employment. To remain a competitive, growing economy, with the capacity to improve our social provision, we must continue to build on what social partnership has achieved for us. Over the past 20 years or so, if we have learned anything, it is that a shared analysis of the issues coupled with a problem-solving approach has worked.

The Deputy is concerned with the effect the authority's decision in the Irish Actors Equity case has on the livelihood of freelance artists and the Competition Authority's decision has, in the past, been called a "distorted version of the pursuit of competition... used to undermine the rights of Trade Unions and their members". However, the Bill before us today is, in effect, championing price fixing, which is a serious crime carrying a maximum prison sentence of five years.

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