In his attempt to justify the deal, the Minister enumerated so-called reforms being, or to be, delivered by benchmarking. He linked benchmarking to the achievement of industrial peace within the public service. It has nothing to do with industrial peace, but is based on the concept of measurably improved productivity. Industrial peace forms part of the national wage or partnership agreements. The industrial relations peace of the last 15 or 16 years, which we all acknowledge to be a cornerstone of our economic recovery and success, was built into a succession of partnership agreements, starting with the rogramme for National Recovery and agreed in subsequent programmes, such as the Programme for Economic and Social Progress and the Programme for Competitiveness and Work.