A SIGNIFICANT gap remains between unions and employers on agreeing a new social partnership deal, the secretary general to the Government said yesterday.
However, in a progress report delivered at the talks, Dermot McCarthy said he detected that everyone accepted the country was facing difficult economic times, and the best way to deal with these was by reaching a further agreement.
Mr McCarthy told the parties that he would report on the issue to the Government.
Unions, employers and Government representatives are to meet again on Monday evening. It is understood there is concern on the Government side that if there is to be progress in the talks, it will have to come in the next fortnight.
The general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions David Begg has already warned that the end of July is in effect a deadline, and that he could not see the current process continuing into August.
Unions and employers are still divided on issues such as pay, collective bargaining rights in non-union firms, competitiveness, management of change in workplaces, and rights for agency workers. The issue of public sector reform will also be a major issue in the talks.
Speaking after the talks last night a Government spokesman said: "The parties to the negotiations on a new pay agreement this afternoon reviewed the progress made at the talks to date. The commitment to seek to conclude a new agreement was confirmed and the difficulties which have arisen in making progress, reflecting the challenging context within which the talks are taking place, were acknowledged. The parties agreed that the negotiations should continue with a view to reaching agreement, if possible, within the next two weeks."
Sources close to the talks said there had been little progress made in contacts over the last week or so. Sources said that in the talks earlier this week, the Department of Finance suggested that over the course of the last two national agreements workers' pay remained ahead of inflation, when increases as well as Government measures such as tax changes and mortgage interest relief were taken into account.
The first phase of the current Towards 2016 agreement included pay increases of 10 per cent over a 27-month period. However, unions have argued that workers lost out because of higher-than anticipated inflation levels.
