David Begg, former general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) says the government being formed should focus on stabilising the current industrial relations climate.
"Nothing will undermine a government more than having chaos at the industrial relations front in the country," he said on Newstalk Breakfast.
“People have forgotten how intractable industrial disputes can be. In the late 70s there was a postal strike that went on for 19 weeks. That strike put the kibosh on Jack Lynch’s government in 1979.”
Discussing the current Luas dispute, Mr Begg said all things are ultimately resolvable. “The trick is not letting everybody getting so dug-in that relations are destroyed or trust gone. There can be a lot of collateral damage.”
He called for the re-establishment of the Employer-Labour Conference which he said had been a forum that provided a broad distribution of agreement rather than a whole series of bushfires.