Michael Kitt (Fianna Fail)

I welcome this debate. I will not be able to address all the issues raised but will make a commitment to deal with them as best I can on Committee Stage. Some very important, detailed points were made.

I am a great supporter of social partnership and respect Senator Brian Hayes's opinion that Members, across party lines, have different views thereon. Senator O'Toole, a strong proponent of this system who has been an active player, made the key point that there are always other issues to address. We all know the issues that need to be addressed in respect of health, marginalisation and poverty and we must do more work on these.

Senator Brian Hayes mentioned the democratic deficit, which has been discussed previously, and Senator Ó Murchú covered it in his contribution. There is a role for the Oireachtas in this regard. The Taoiseach has taken well in excess of 300 oral questions on social partnership since 1997. Each of our six social partnership agreements to date has been negotiated on the basis of the primacy of the programme for Government within the framework of the NESC three-year strategic, economic and social overview. I assume the negotiations leading to Partnership 2000, overseen by the then rainbow coalition Government, were conducted on a similar basis.

The monitoring and review of the implementation of the social partnership agreement operates on a number of levels in the Oireachtas. The detailed quarterly progress report on implementation, keynote speeches and other relevant documents are laid before the Oireachtas for close scrutiny and probing. In excess of 40 key documents have been laid before both Houses in respect of the current agreement. Ministerial colleagues have also engaged in extensive debate on social partnership-related issues. The Oireachtas strand of the National Economic and Social Forum, a key social partnership institution, comprises Members of the Dáil and Seanad. I welcome the debates in the Seanad on this issue.

On the NESC strategy for 2006, the report provides a guiding vision for economic and social development in the future. The strategy report represents a particularly valuable input into the necessary process of dialogue. The social partnership process is more than a pay agreement — it represents a set of relationships between Government and social partners which helps to produce a problem-solving response, as stated by Senator Ó Murchú. I have personal experience of this and I remember the famous dispute involving baggage handlers in Ryanair. A mechanism exists to solve problems as they arise and it has been marvellous in terms of the partnership approach and in managing change in the direction of strategic progress. This point was made by Senator O'Toole.

On the accountability of NESDO, Senator Brian Hayes said we are putting in place a process centralised in the Department of the Taoiseach. However, section 32(1) gives the Committee of Public Accounts a role in examining the expenditure of the respective bodies. Section 32(2) requires the directors and chief officers to give an account of their operations to a committee of both Houses. Freedom of information guidelines will apply to each of the three bodies of the office. I have covered briefly the role of the Oireachtas in the partnership process.

I regret that, in my capacity as Government Chief Whip, I must now leave for some pressing business concerning a necessary part of the democratic process, namely, voting. I welcome this debate and assure Senators that I will address some of the outstanding issues on Committee Stage.