Eric Byrne (Dublin South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Perhaps, in law, they are but they are basically community-led projects. The worry I have is that the Minister is deferring to the companies and has given the ILDN the negotiation rights on behalf of the workers of the partnerships. Let us call spade a spade. On the ground, at the coalface of poverty, alienation and hardship, people at community level know how to tap into this and to provide the programmes to assist people in development. If they are excluded, it becomes a bureaucratic structure. I must ask if the Minister believes in social partnership. The trade union movement and SIPTU are part of the social partnership structure. Why would the Minister want to exclude the union representing the body of men and women of the community and voluntary sector in the structures?

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