A report released yesterday on the challenges facing the economy should help negotiations on a new national partnership deal, a trade union leader said last night.
Mr Des Geraghty, the president of SIPTU, said the report of the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) provided a "fairly sober look at the economy".
Unions, he said, were open to many of the ideas contained in the 147-page report, details of which were first reported in The Irish Times just over a fortnight ago.
The social partners - the Government, employers, unions, farmers and the community and voluntary sectors - are all represented on NESC, and its reports form the basis for each round of talks on a national partnership deal.
The report just published, it is hoped, will provide the template for a successor to the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness (PPF), which expires shortly.
Negotiations on a successor agreement have already begun but the indications are that a new deal will be extremely difficult to achieve.
The NESC report says that while social partnership has made a significant contribution to economic and social development, the process may need to be "revitalised and recast".
It suggests that a more flexible approach may be needed to deal with the State's rapidly changing economy, although the specific changes would be a matter for the substantive negotiations now under way.
On the public finances, the report says infrastructural investment of at least 5 per cent of GNP is required in order to implement the National Development Plan.
It concedes, however, that the NDP is unlikely to be delivered either on time or on budget.
"To the extent that government borrowing is not possible, or deemed undesirable, alternative means to finance the necessary infrastructure must be considered," it says.
These could include public-private partnerships, public recovery of some of the increased land values arising from development, and user charges.
The report says the factors that caused the increase in inflation in recent years are now easing.
It recommends that the Competition Authority and the Director of Consumer Affairs be mandated and given resources to prioritise investigations in sectors where prices appear unjustified by market conditions.
On social inclusion, the report recommends that the Government implements, as soon as resources permit and earlier than 2007 if possible, its commitment to bring the lowest social welfare payment to €150 in 2002 terms.
The report just released is the "conclusions and recommendations" chapter of the full NESC report, "An Investment in Quality: Services, Inclusion and Enterprise", which is to be published shortly.
The chapter can be down-loaded from the NESC website at www.nesc.ie
