Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 1: To ask the Taoiseach the costs which have accrued to his Department in respect of the National Centre for Partnership and Performance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32019/04]

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 2: To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the recent work of the National Economic and Social Development Office; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32020/04]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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Question 3: To ask the Taoiseach if he will make a statement on the work of the national centre for partnership. [33213/04]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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Question 4: To ask the Taoiseach if he will make a statement on the recent work of the National Economic and Social Development Office. [33214/04]

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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Question 5: To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the National Centre for Partnership and Performance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34604/04]

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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Question 6: To ask the Taoiseach if he will make a statement on the recent work of the National Economic and Social Development Office. [34605/04]

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 7: To ask the Taoiseach the costs to his Department of the National Centre for Partnership and Performance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1383/05]

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 8: To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the National Economic and Social Development Office. [1384/05]

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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Question 9: To ask the Taoiseach the studies being carried out by the National Economic and Social Council; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1471/05]

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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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.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Taoiseach for his comprehensive reply. One of the central reasons for setting up this kind of operation was to avoid industrial disputes where possible. Given the strong possibility of a serious postal strike, will the appropriate body be called together to stave off such a strike if that is possible, given that is part of its remit? If so, when will that happen?

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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The national implementation body, if it has not done so already, is proceeding to ask An Post to go back to the Labour Court in relation to the reintegration of SDS into the company. I have a note, which states that the implementation body has met and has considered the difficulties in An Post in relation to SDS. It has called on both parties to suspend industrial actions and to lift the suspensions in order to allow progress to be made at the Labour Court on 11 February in respect of SDS reintegration.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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Does the Taoiseach support that call?

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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Hopefully, that will be responded to positively so they can go to the court and, in that case, avoid the industrial dispute.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Did I hear the Taoiseach correctly that it is to make the call this evening?

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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I do not have a time. I spoke to the relevant officials at lunchtime and at that stage, they had set about having a meeting with the national implementation body. The statement I have here is either being issued, or will be issued shortly.

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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I welcome that information from the Taoiseach but I am sure he will agree that, to some extent, the damage has been done and we are shutting the door after the horse has bolted in the case of An Post. My question relates to the national centre for partnership and performance. Is there not a problem here in so much as the national centre for partnership and performance seems to concern itself with abstract work organisation issues and abstruse academic questions which are important but that when it comes to providing any hands on support in terms of implementation of these decisions in the workplace, as is so badly needed in An Post, it is not seen to happen? The national implementation body will now find itself seized of a management decision to shut down SDS and it is being asked to unravel that after 63 people have been laid off and the decision has been made.

I understand how there might be problems nowadays with the number of pieces of mail going through the system given electronic mail and so on. However, I find it very difficult to understand how there is a problem of viability with a company dealing with the distribution of packages. One cannot send a package by e-mail yet in my constituency that plant has been shut down because it is, in the belief of the unions, a very valuable site to be sold off. The national implementation body is supposed to wave a magic wand and prevent what ultimately looks like being a total close down of the postal service.

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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It would have been better if management and unions had resolved all these issues in advance and had looked at some of the best practice of the national centre for partnership and performance. The national implementation body works out of my Department, or at least it is engaged by my Department under social progress. It engages itself in many disputes but does not get into the issues of disputes.

The NCPP is not the Labour Court, the Labour Relations Commission or the conciliation service but it has been trying to research best practice — partially academically, I accept — and to identify practical approaches which further develop workplace partnerships with particular regard to the contribution of employee enterprises and enterprise participation, workplace learning and all of the other matters in which it is engaged. I think Deputy Rabbitte would agree that, in many companies — often more so in the private sector than in the State sector — there are very good partnership models which operate very well. NCPP has been trying to develop successfully with few resources and few staff, good case studies which can help in those issues. In the few years it has been operating, it has been doing that. It does not, of course, solve all problems but it has a number of very significant work cases.

In regard to An Post, the Minister has spent much time in the past few months engaging with the staff and the unions and trying to engage them in terms of the Labour Court to try to resolve many of the outstanding industrial relations issues. It has been quite difficult for several months. I am not involved in it on a day to day basis but from what I know of it, both sides could do with working together a bit better rather than trying to jump each other. I hope they can respond to the national implementation body and go to the Labour Court to try to resolve these issues because they all have a vested interest in turning their company around, trying to explore what ends of the market are viable for it and getting on with it. Being involved in industrial disputes damages them.

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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One of the questions I asked was on the National Social and Development Office and its work. Is that office carrying out any research in the area of poverty or social exclusion? One in seven children are consistently poor which is a worrying statistic. Is the Taoiseach aware of work being done to investigate why that level of consistent poverty is so bad with one in ten being the average overall? One can answer that Ireland has half the level of social protection expenditure as Sweden but I would like to know whether there is further work to be done in that area and whether the Government will heed it.

The national centre for partnership and performance recently produced some interesting statistics. I wish to ask the Taoiseach about the NCPP's supporting gender equality in Ireland report produced last year. There is a gender pay gap of 15% and women are 50% less likely to receive performance related pay. Will that result in the Government making any effort or putting specific measures in place to address that? The report by the same organisation on the workplace of the future highlights that the largest number of case files now before the Equality Authority concern racism in the workplace. On that basis, has any effort been made to address the distinct disadvantage for people coming to this country where their second and third level qualifications are not recognised and where they find themselves in a lower grade of employment than their qualifications would otherwise deserve? Will the Taoiseach address that matter given the need for migrant workers and the potential to take up their skills? When one hears of people being deported, for example trainee nurses in one case of which I am aware, does it not point to the fact we need an immigration policy which goes beyond refugee status and humanitarian considerations? The office seems to be pointing in that direction as well.

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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The national action programme on racism will be launched tomorrow. It is a plan for the future on which work has been done for some considerable time. The fourth periodic report of the National Economic and Social Forum was published in November. It reviews the work published by the forum and covers a number of issues, including lone parents, the reintegration of prisoners, equality issues, early school leavers and equity of access to hospital care. It notes the progress made in these areas and welcomes the establishment of the new institutions. It goes on to state that it will continue to work on some other aspects. I do not have all the details but it is continuing work in the social exclusion area.

On the forum on the workplace of the future, work on that has gone on for the past 18 months or so. The mid-term review of part two of Sustaining Progress commits the NCPP to find practical approaches to further develop workplace partnerships with particular regard to the contribution of enterprise partnership to workplace learning. The centre is working on the finalisation of agreed guidelines and different forms of employee financial involvement. That work is carried out by IBEC and ICTU and is expected to conclude this year. The NCPP continues to research case studies in other sectors and all the studies are available on the centre's website. The NCPP continues work in other areas such as a case study on current practice regarding the EU directive on information and consultation and different step-by-step procedures on that directive. The centre is also developing a second phase involving seminars on employer and trade union issues and initiatives in an entire range of areas. Overall, therefore, the NCPP has a major work programme, with elements either under way or in progress.

I wish to mention two other projects. The learning organisation project, developed in conjunction with FÁS, entails using a partnership approach for training and organisation learning to ensure that employers and employees develop the skills necessary for future success. This project is ongoing in 14 private and public sector workplaces. Finally, the joint partnership training modules project is an ICTU-IBEC initiative which involves the NCPP working with a number of companies to implement the associated training modules. All these programmes are either ongoing or form part of the work programme for the current year.

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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What will the Government do about these reports?

Rory O'Hanlon (Cavan-Monaghan, Ceann Comhairle)
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Deputy Sargent has had the opportunity to speak. Deputy Ó Caoláin may address a question to the Taoiseach.

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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Will measures be taken to respond to them or will they just sit on a shelf?

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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Most of the work undertaken by the NCPP and the Forum on the Workplace of the Future involves active engagement with ICTU, IBEC and FÁS in the implementation of reports. The NCPP is an academic initiative in terms of research but it is also actively involved in implementation with the co-operation of trade unions and employers. Membership of the centre is comprised of trade unionists.

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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Is the Government involved?

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Government provides the funding.

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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As the Taoiseach advised in his reply, the NCPP, in conjunction with IBEC and ICTU, has developed a revised partnership training programme that is quite specifically targeted at unionised private sector organisations that wish to develop a partnership approach to change and to improve performances. Has the Taoiseach asked the centre to address the issue of the growing number of non-unionised workplaces? Does he agree it would be appropriate to examine this issue, particularly in the context of partnership, given that the right to trade union recognition, membership and representation is critical? Does it not suggest itself to the Taoiseach that it is an issue for the centre to address? In the final analysis, it is perhaps incumbent on this House to consider legislation to make it a requirement of workplaces to recognise the right of employees to join and participate within a trade union organisation.

My second question relates to the fourth periodic report of the National Social and Economic Development Office on the work of the National Economic and Social Forum. This report updates the position contained in a number of its previous reports, including that covering the equality of access to hospital care. As spokesman on health and children, this is an area of particular concern to me. Does the Taoiseach agree with the NESF in its statement that what is now required is a fundamental examination of the public-private mix in hospitals and that it is this mix and the piggybacking by the private sector on the public hospitals' acute services provision which has created what is tantamount to a two-tier system in acute hospital services? The report points up the urgent need to address this imbalance. This brings in the consultants' contracts and all the other issues the Government must address.

Rory O'Hanlon (Cavan-Monaghan, Ceann Comhairle)
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A detailed question on this issue to the Minister for Health and Children might be more appropriate.

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Taoiseach for his replies.

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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On the Deputy's first question, although the NCPP and all these other organisations are working under the umbrella of social partnership and their work is available to all, it is correct that they are not as actively involved in non-unionised workplaces. The NCPP always makes its case studies, data and models available to such workplaces. However, a difficulty arises if it is not invited to do so and there is no umbrella mechanism. I have no doubt that some of the work done by the centre would be useful in these areas but there is no way of forcing that into private sector areas in which there is no involvement. However, IBEC, the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland and others, even where workplaces are non-unionised, use case study reports. I will ask the NCPP what it can do to engage in areas in which it may meet an unhelpful response.

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Will the Taoiseach report back to me on this issue?

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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Yes. The Deputy's second question relates to the report of the National Social and Economic Development Office which sets out recommendations for developments in the health area. Most of the issues mentioned by the Deputy, including that of the common contract, are matters that are either under way or under discussion. The report points out the importance of seeking resolutions to these issues and that is recognised by the Department of Health and Children.

The NESF has a somewhat limited role in its ongoing work of researching different sectors. In the report mentioned by the Deputy, the NESF launched a set of health service case studies demonstrating how change has been managed successfully through partnership in an attempt to encourage the health sector to utilise the findings of these studies. Similar case studies have been undertaken on the local government and education sectors but Deputy Ó Caoláin's question related to health. The NESF has made these reports available and they are useful in terms of change implementation although they do not supersede the change incorporated in the Government's agenda. Issues such as that of the common contract are being considered by the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children.

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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The Taoiseach has not dealt with Question No. 9 to any extent. What studies can we expect from the National Economic and Social Council? Will the Taoiseach confirm that reports will be issued on the issues of housing and child care? If so, can he say anything to the House about the likely conclusions on the subject of child care?

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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The NESC report on housing was published before Christmas. It has issued a number of reports, including those entitled Creating a More Inclusive Labour Market, Care of Older People and Early Education, all of which deal with topics that were selected as priorities. It has begun work on studies on anti-social behaviour, cultural citizenship and the delivery of public services. It is also doing some work on the national anti-poverty strategy. They are the main reports it is working on this year.

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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Are they all in the public domain?

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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The housing one was published just before——

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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What about the other ones to which the Taoiseach referred?

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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It is working on the other ones. I will send the Deputy a complete list. I believe it has published approximately six reports in the past few months. I will get the Deputy the list.