Government officials are to hold bilateral discussions with employer bodies and unions early next week with a view to finding the basis for a new national agreement.
The two sides yesterday had what a source described as a "robust exchange" on the issue of employment standards.
Unions say they want substantial progress on measures to combat exploitation of workers and prevent the displacement of jobs before they negotiate on other issues.
Employers, however, assert there is no evidence to support the claims made by unions concerning these issues.
It has become increasingly clear that the "crunch issue" in the talks will be the unions' demand for new legislation underpinning workers' pay and conditions.
Employer bodies say they are prepared to consider measures to ensure better enforcement of job standards, but they will strongly oppose the imposition of new regulations.
Yesterday's talks focused initially on the significance of the trends identified in the Quarterly National Household Survey published by the Central Statistics Office on Thursday.
Representatives of the employers' body, Ibec, argued that the survey provided further evidence, following a recent AIB report, that concerns about job displacement are unfounded.
The CSO reported that foreign nationals accounted for 9 per cent of the labour force in the final quarter of last year, compared with 7 per cent for the same period in 2004.
But it also found that almost half of the 86,500 additional jobs created in the 12 months to November last year were taken by Irish people.
Ibec claims the fact that more Irish people were working in all sectors of the economy, except manufacturing and catering, is evidence that Irish workers are vacating lower-paid jobs to avail of better opportunities.
Unions, however, claim the figures do not show the fact that wages are being depressed in sectors with significant proportions of migrant workers, such as construction.
Union concerns about employment practices in that sector, and particularly electrical contracting, were the other main focus of debate yesterday.
The sides are to meet again on Wednesday. In the meantime, they will separately hold informal discussions with Department of the Taoiseach secretary general Dermot McCarthy.
The talks on a successor to Sustaining Progress began a fortnight ago, with mid-March set as the target for agreement.
A consensus has emerged between the Government and the social partners - employers, unions, farm bodies and the community and voluntary sector - that an overall agreement should run for up to 10 years.
Bilateral discussions are to take place between the Government and all the participants in the talks over the coming days on what social objectives should be prioritised in a new agreement.
Previous partnership agreements ran for periods of three years only.
