Shane McEntee (Meath, Fine Gael)
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Question 113: To ask the Minister for Finance his ambitions for the current round of social partnership talks. [19401/06]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy is aware talks on a new national partnership agreement to follow Sustaining Progress are ongoing and it would be imprudent to make any detailed statement at this stage about these talks which cover a wide range of issues.

However, I might reiterate what I have said recently and that is that we can only pay ourselves what productivity allows if we are to maintain our competitiveness. We cannot pay ourselves wage increases based also on our inflation rate where this is out of line with our competitors.

Fundamentally, the cornerstone of a new agreement must be the protection of the long-term competitiveness of the country. If pay increases under the next agreement are not kept at a moderate level and do not take account of pay levels in competitor countries, we will see job losses in vulnerable parts of the private sector.