Ruairí Quinn
Question:1 Mr. Quinn asked the Taoiseach the work undertaken by the National Centre for Partnership in the past six months; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18444/98]
Ceisteanna — Questions. - National Centre for Partnership.
As the Deputy will be aware from briefings I gave the House on the work of the centre on 11 March, 6 May and 23 June 1998, the National Centre for Partnership has been actively engaged in pursuing its work programme in the private and public sectors and this has continued over the past six months.
In the private sector, the centre has initiated a series of regional seminars on the topic of "Partnership at Enterprise Level". The first was held in UCD in early June and further seminars were held in Cork and Galway during October. The seminars targeted senior management, union officials and other parties with interest in the topic. IBEC and ICTU have been active participants in the seminars and the feedback from the seminars has been positive.
The joint IBEC/ICTU project — Partnership in Action at Enterprise Level, PACT — under the EU ADAPT initiative has commenced. Under the project, eight teams have been established on a regional basis made up of management and employee representatives from selected companies, an IBEC executive and a trade union official. The teams are assessing and surveying their needs and those of the companies involved in order to develop enterprise partnership. The project will run to the end of 1999, with the objective that the teams will act as catalysts and facilitators for other enterprises in their region. The centre is liaising with the co-ordinators of the project in order to learn from the experience and disseminate the information.
The centre has established a computer database containing details on either multi-stranded or single partnership issues existing in enterprises with the intention of monitoring existing developments and expanding as more details emerge via surveys, direct contact and other sources of information available to it. The identification of a number of enterprises on a cross-sectoral basis where partnership topics are successfully practised will be made easier by access to this database. It is intended that suitable enterprises will be documented and video taped with a view to disseminating their experiences and shortening the learning curve of other enterprises on the partnership path.
With regard to the public sector, a series of regional seminars were arranged for the Civil Service, local government and health sectors. These seminars took place in Sligo on 20 October, Cork on 28 October and Galway on 3 November. A further seminar is scheduled for Dublin on 18 November. Due to high demand, the centre may schedule further seminars for Dublin and Limerick after this date. The Irish Productivity Centre is assisting in the organisation and delivery of the seminars. The audience consists of management, union and staff representatives with the objective of promoting partnership locally and to create a platform for updating representatives on developments in the local government and health sectors in particular. In addition, a joint National Centre for Partnership/Irish Management Institute seminar on the implications of partnership for management development in the public service was held on 22 September and was well received.
Many Departments and Civil Service offices have partnership committees in place and the centre is assisting in putting partnership structures in place in the wider public service. A group has been established, chaired by my Department, consisting of representatives of Departments with bodies under their aegis, the Local Government Management Services Board, the Health Service Employers Agency and the National Centre for Partnership. Progress is being made towards the wide establishment of partnership structures, with facilitation and assistance from the centre. The centre is finalising training materials for public sector partnership and it is expected they will be complete within the next six weeks. These will be disseminated as widely as possible, as soon as possible.
It will also produce the first of its partnership bulletins this month. This will contain a range of information on partnership topics as well as working experiences of various forms of partnership. It is envisaged that five bulletins will be produced between now and March 2000. As a result of a widening interest, not just in Ireland, in enterprise level partnerships, the centre had discussions with French and Danish groups to exchange experiences. Further international contacts are being pursued by the joint directors.
I thank the Taoiseach for his comprehensive reply. Will the centre be involved in the preparations for the forthcoming national agreement? Which Departments have established partnership committees?
The centre was born out of Partnership 2000 and its ongoing work will, hopefully, continue to be part of the social partnership process. Thankfully, it gained momentum this year not just among trade unions but throughout the system, as I outlined. Most Departments have set up partnership committees or are in the process of doing so, particularly in the local government and health sectors. That is where the partnership centre is anxious to be involved because they are the biggest areas and it believes that is where it can have the best effect.
Apart from an extremely large list of domestic and international meetings about partnership, all of which were very useful, has anything practical changed at enterprise level as far as partnership is concerned?
It is six months since I answered these questions in the House. At enterprise level, unions and management are co-operating effectively, with the help of the National Partnership. There are a large number of areas in which companies are working together to solve difficulties concerning rationalisation and modernisation. Some television programmes have reported these developments, showing situations in which management and unions, who were hostile towards each other, are now working together to develop plans.
This is taking place across the board in co-operatives, manufacturing industries and services. High tech companies are not the only ones which use this practice, it is also taking place in indigenous companies.
It is not happening everywhere but I hope that the work of the databases and the seminar will introduce this best practice to other companies. I do not know what proportion of companies are using this idea, but employers and unions who are joining in because they feel part of the centre are driving this initiative in their industries.