A final push to secure a national partnership deal is to be made this week. Parallel talks on the non-pay aspects of an agreement, as well as bringing in benchmarking pay rises, resume today.
Government officials spent the weekend drafting a revised document on "Building, Maintaining and Sharing Economic Development and Prosperity", which will be presented to the social partners this afternoon. Proposals under a separate heading, "Delivering a Fair and Inclusive Society", are to be debated tomorrow.
The Government hopes to have the talks concluded before the end of the week, but both the farming and community and voluntary sectors remain to be convinced of the merits of a new deal.
Ms Frances Byrne, a spokeswoman for the Community Platform, which represents 26 organisations and is participating in the talks, said the Taoiseach had promised that social inclusiveness would be an element of any new deal. "We're still waiting to see how that's going to be translated into specific commitments."
Separate talks on implementing benchmarking pay rises also resume today. A number of sticking points, including a proposal that parent-teacher meetings be held outside school hours and industrial peace requirements in the health sector, remain to be resolved. Proposed new recruitment and promotion procedures in the civil service is another outstanding issue.
The changes are part of a programme of change which public sector unions must sign up to before members receive full benchmarking increases.
Although talks on the partnership deal are continuing, the director general of the employers' body, IBEC, agreed yesterday to a suggestion that the deal was effectively done as far as unions and employers were concerned.
Mr Turlough O'Sullivan told the RTÉ This Week programme that "the essentials" were in place following the agreement of a phased 7 per cent pay increase over 18 months.
