I move:
That a supplementary sum not exceeding £2,659,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment in the year ending 31 December 1997 for the salaries and expenses of the Department of the Taoiseach, and for the payment of grants and grants-in-aid.
This Supplementary Estimate arises from a variety of factors. A number of new public services commenced operations under the aegis of my Department in 1997. These are the National Partnership Centre, the Information Society Commission and Territorial Employment Pacts. Services in respect of the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation and the Sailors and Soldiers Land Trust Act have been reactivated. It is appropriate that the costs arising on some special services such as the Moriarty Tribunal of Inquiry, the referendum on Cabinet confidentiality and the all-party committee on the strategic management initiative should be borne by my Department.
It was necessary to make substantial organisational arrangements in my Department since July 1997 to take account of these new services, to adjust for a number of services which were transferred to other Departments and to provide for the administrative arrangements directly related to a change of Government. These factors gave rise to increased financial demands above the level estimated for the general administration of the Department, including salaries, travel and official entertainment and a wide range of utilities costs. The final costs of the EU Presidency were also discharged in 1997 above the estimated level.
My Department's services in the area of partnership are critically important. Ireland's economic performance in recent times has been impressive. Every imaginable superlative has been used to describe our success. The statistics speak for themselves: 5.5 per cent average growth per annum during the past ten years compared to 1.8 per cent during the previous decade; the lowest inflation rate in the EU; buoyant Exchequer returns which indicate that the general government balance, the measure used for Maastricht Treaty purposes, should record a surplus for the year; and record creation of new jobs — 41,000 more people at work in April this year than at the same time last year giving a total increase of 186,000 during the four year period since 1993. Forecasts for 1998 predict a further increase of over 50,000 people at work.
The positive effects of these performance indicators on the economic well-being of our people are evident throughout the country. Many reasons have been advanced to explain Ireland's exceptional performance. The truth is that, as with all growing economies, success is rooted in a multitude of factors and policies working in an appropriate balance with one another. What is unique in the Irish context is the mechanism which enables that balance to be struck. It boils down to one word — partnership.
The national partnership agreements since 1987 have been the bedrock of Ireland's achievements during the past decade. They have provided a framework for stability that had been markedly absent in previous years. That is clear from any number of perspectives — growth rates, industrial relations, inflation figures, Exchequer returns, emigration statistics, numbers of people at work and so on.
At national level, the four social partnership pillars — employers and business, the trade unions, farmers and the voluntary sector — work together with Government to advance the agreed set of commitments outlined in Partnership 2000. Although each pillar and constituent organisation has its own special interests and concerns, they work in a spirit of co-operation towards fulfilment of the partnership agreement. The Government does likewise but, additionally, it is obliged to act as co-ordinator and facilitator, frequently spanning a vast range of sectoral interests and concerns. That unique and crucial role often falls to my Department. Considerable resources are required to fulfil that role effectively. Having regard to the scale of national benefits the administrative costs are modest.
Under Partnership 2000 a range of mechanisms is in place to ensure expeditious implementation of the agreement. These include a secretariat which services the quarterly plenary meetings in all respects, from logistical arrangements to the production of progress reports. In addition, officials from my Department chair, or are otherwise represented on, a significant number of groups operating under the auspices of the partnership. These groups deal with a wide range of economic, fiscal and social issues of particular concern to some, or all, of the social partner organisations.
Looking ahead, the years to the new millennium and beyond offer particular opportunities and present unique challenges for Ireland, especially in the context of our entry into economic and monetary union. We must continue to achieve sustainable, competitive advantage, particularly in an enlarged and more integrated European Union. Central to that aim is the implementation of Partnership 2000 in order to best position the country to meet the challenges and avail of the opportunities which will inevitably ensue.
Equally important, we must continue our earnest efforts toward bringing about a more equitable distribution of the nation's increasing wealth. The Government's agreement with the social partners provides an imaginative and effective framework to progress that agenda and is complemented by the Government's own Action Programme for the Millennium.
In short, we must learn from the mistakes of the past and, perhaps more importantly, the successes. We should continue to remind ourselves of what is being done correctly and what could be done better. The partnership process provides the framework to do just that. In particular, it focuses the efforts of Government and the social partners on realising our shared vision of a better future for all our people. It is in such a context that adequate resources are essential. In part that represents the reason for my moving this Supplementary Estimate for my Department.
Another key part of the Government's strategy for promoting partnership in the years and decades ahead is the National Partnership Centre. Arising from the commitment in Partnership 2000, a National Centre for Partnership was established in May last under the aegis of my Department. Its key task is to promote and facilitate a new, more co-operative relationship between unions, employers and employees at workplace level in the private and public sectors. The centre has two full-time executives and other administrative appointments will be made in the near future.
The Supplementary Estimate provides £193,000 for the cost of salaries, office equipment, travel and subsistence, training and promotion, design and printing, research and office maintenance.
The Supplementary Estimate covers costs in relation to progressing the important work of the Information Society Commission. The commission, established in May last, is playing a vital role in overseeing the implementation of the strategic framework for the development of the information society in Ireland. It is currently preparing an interim report which will identify areas for action to position Ireland to maximise the benefits of technology in the years ahead and will also include its work programme for the coming year. In this Supplementary Estimate, the 1997 allocation of £249,000 for the commission relates to six months of operations this year and includes set-up costs.
Territorial employment pacts — TEPs — are an exciting new pan-European Union initiative, established by the European Commission, to encourage regional and local partnership in tackling long-term unemployment and disadvantage in a cohesive, co-ordinated and integrated manner. There were 88 TEPs selected throughout the European Union, four of which are in Ireland. The Commission's proposal of the pacts is a recognition of the importance of broadening the partnership principle and of intersectoral co-operation at local level to tackle unemployment. Therefore, the Irish pacts will build on the experience of the area-based partnerships already in place under the Operational Programme for Local, Urban and Rural Development. Our local development approach has been recognised internationally as a useful model for tackling disadvantage, acknowledged as such by the European Commission in its endorsement of the pacts. It is important that we continue to be at the leading edge in implementing the pacts in Ireland and I am confident we shall be successful in doing so.
The Supplementary Estimate provides £60,000 Irish co-financing for the pacts which are 75 per cent grant-aided by the European Union. The territorial employment pacts have the full support of the social partners at national level, receiving endorsement under Partnership 2000. Their success calls for the participation and support of employers, workers, State agencies and indeed all who can bring worthwhile ideas for action to the table.
As Members will be aware, from February 1996 meetings of the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation were deferred until a basis had been restored on which, consistent with its terms of reference and the basis on which it was established, it could agree to meet in a fully inclusive format. Following the restoration of the IRA ceasefire on 20 July last, this became possible. It has been decided to hold occasional meetings of the forum commencing with one on Friday next, 5 December, 1997.
A total of £40,000 is being provided this year for the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation. This is to cover costs associated with the forum, including that of the meeting this week, the cost of the printing of proceedings of that meeting and of some outstanding proceedings.
A total of £50,000 is being provided to fund projects this year under the Irish Sailors and Soldiers Land Trust. This is to cover an amount, which had been envisaged by the former Taoiseach and with which I agreed, for the Institute of Irish Studies in the University of Liverpool. This amount is part of a total figure of £180,000 which will provide sponsorship of the lectureship in modern Irish language and literature in the institute over a five year period. The institute received funding from the trust in previous years to establish the lectureship.
As the House will be aware I recently announced a further allocation of £150,000 from the trust towards the cost of a First World War memorial in Messines in Belgium for all the Irishmen who died in the conflict. The total provision is, therefore, £200,000 for the current year.
These allocations have been made from moneys which will accrue to the Irish Government in connection with the winding up of the Irish Soldiers and Sailors Land Trust, on foot of an agreement on division of the proceeds, made with the British Government some years ago. The trust was set up in 1922 to provide houses for Irish ex-servicemen who fought with the British Armed Forces in the First World War. It is currently in the process of being wound up and when all the necessary procedures for winding up the trust have been completed, the money will become available. The Irish Government's share will be somewhat more than a million pounds. I will shortly seek Dáil approval of a motion to facilitate this.
A provision of £300,000 is proposed for the tribunal in the current year for all legal and administrative costs. Work on the preliminary investigations specified in the terms of reference has commenced, and Mr. Justice Moriarty has indicated that he hopes to complete his task and finish his report by mid-1998. The administrative staff which served the McCracken tribunal have remained in place to serve the new tribunal.
The Supplementary Estimate includes a provision to meet the expenses of the ad hoc Commission on Referendum Information. The commission was established by the Minister for the Environment and Local Government to encourage informed debate on the positive and negative implications of the proposed constitutional amendment on Cabinet confidentiality.
The ad hoc commission consisted of the Ombudsman, the Clerk of the Dáil and the Clerk of the Seanad. It supervised the production of an information advertisement, within parameters it could lay down, containing statements of the case for and against the proposed amendment.
To ensure the statements were prepared in a fair and impartial manner, the Minister for the Environment and Local Government invited the President of the Bar Council to nominate two senior counsel, one to draw up a statement for the case and the other a statement against, having regard to arguments advanced publicly on either side and to submissions made to them.
The estimated cost of the proposed ad hoc commission is £400,000. In line with precedent the cost is to be borne by the Vote of my Department which sponsored the referendum.
In response to views expressed by Members I propose that an Oireachtas Committee on the strategic management initiative be established, the details of which will be announced shortly. A token provision of £5,000 is being provided to meet possible expenses of the committee during the remainder of this year.
As I indicated to the House earlier, substantial organisational arrangements were required in my Department in the course of the year. Accordingly, expenditure in my Department's administrative budget will exceed the amounts estimated. To a large extent this arises because of the change of Government in the course of the year. Additional costs inevitably occur in these circumstances, in particular as a result of severance payments due to staff of the outgoing administration. There are also extra administrative costs associated with this change and with the transfer of staff and functions to other Government Departments. Payments relating to the EU Presidency were discharged in 1997 and were higher than the amounts previously estimated.
