Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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Question 15: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the measures he has taken to ensure the inclusion of the Oireachtas and Irish society generally in broader consultation on the development and implementation of the national reform programme. [11381/06]

Michael Ahern (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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The Irish national reform programme brings together a broad range of policies and initiatives to sustain Ireland's strong economic growth and employment performance as part its contribution to the relaunched EU Lisbon Agenda over the period to 2008. It was agreed that Ireland's social partnership process would serve as the Irish national reform partnership under the Lisbon Agenda. The national reform programme is co-ordinated by the Department of the Taoiseach and prepared by the Departments of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and Finance, taking into account policies agreed in both the programme for Government and Sustaining Progress. The social partners were consulted in the course of preparation of the programme for the period 2005 to 2008 and it was considered in both Houses of the Oireachtas on 25 and 26 October 2005.

The European Commission's assessment of the national reform programme was contained in its annual progress report, published in January 2006. The Commission's view of the Irish programme was that consultation and efforts to develop ownership of the document were very substantial, assisted by the fact that it was built on policies on which there was a fair degree of existing consensus.