Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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The mechanisms for implementation of the new social partnership agreement, Towards 2016, are broadly the same as applied under Sustaining Progress. The steering group representing Government and each of the social partner pillars will be reconvened to take overall responsibility for the management of the implementation of the ten-year framework agreement as it applies to the wider non-pay issues. As heretofore, there will be quarterly meetings of the social partner pillars and an annual meeting of the parties with the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Minister for Finance. It has also been agreed that a formal review will be undertaken during 2008.

The question of the procedures to be followed in relation to pay negotiations for the period after the current agreement expires has not yet been considered.

Work has already begun in this Department in relation to the wide range of commitments that fall within the Department's remit. In particular, work on the preparation of the necessary legislation to give effect to the comprehensive package of measures contained in the agreement on employment standards is being progressed as a matter of urgency. In addition, the process of recruiting the Director of the Office of the Director of Employment Rights Compliance, to be established under the aegis of my Department, got under way in recent days.

Substantial additional resources, both financial and human, will be made available to the Department for the delivery of the commitments under Towards 2016. The precise allocations for 2007 are currently being settled with the Department of Finance in the context of the 2007 estimates process.