Ruairí Quinn
Ceist:30 Mr. Quinn asked the Taoiseach the work undertaken by the National Centre for Partnership in the last six months; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18444/98]
Vol. 496 No. 1
30 Mr. Quinn asked the Taoiseach the work undertaken by the National Centre for Partnership in the last six months; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18444/98]
As the Deputy will be aware from the briefings I gave the House on the work of the centre on 11 March, 6 May and 23 June last, the National Centre for Partnership has been actively engaged in pursuing its work programme in both the private and public sectors and this has continued over the last 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. Both 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 own needs and the needs 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 the centre. The identification of a number of enterprises on a cross-sectoral basis where partnership topics are being successfully practised will be made easier with 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.