Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

From the Taoiseach's reply and one I received to a similar question previously I am not sure his heart is in this process. Perhaps it hearkens back to a different time and while the idea of social partnership might be a loaded concept now but it is a relevant one and an important one still.

We have already reached a period of some considerable industrial disputes. Tesco workers are on strike today. In the public sector nurses and teachers are about to go on strike and in the semi-State sector there is the possibility of bus drivers going on strike, and there are others. In that context does the Taoiseach think we need to have some restoration of a mechanism for social dialogue? I refer in particular to the old employer-labour conference concept, which was a final appeal mechanism when intractable disputes could not be resolved and representatives of labour and employers could knock heads together, as it were. The mechanism has worked very effectively in the past. When people run out of space sometimes one needs a third-party mechanism to enable intervention. In the context of what we are probably facing into in the coming months in both the public and private spheres we need to be alert to the need for mechanisms that can defuse disputes before they do serious damage to the well-being of our people and to our economic well-being.

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