I propose to take Questions Nos. 7 to 10, inclusive, together.
The next PPF plenary meeting will take place on 29 April. The main items on the agenda are public service modernisation, including better regulation, and waste management. In accordance with normal practice, the meeting will provide an opportunity to review progress and to deal with any issues of particular concern at the time.
As with all PPF plenary meetings, a detailed progress report has been produced for this meeting setting out for each Department, including my own, the progress being made under each action point in the PPF. The eighth report, copies of which have been lodged in the Oireachtas Library, records the continuing good progress in implementing the economic, social and structural development agenda set out in the programme.
As regards the areas of the PPF which are my specific responsibility, my Department exercises the main co-ordinating role for overall implemen tation of the programme as well as supporting a range of cross-departmental issues, such as public service modernisation, quality customer service, better regulation, infrastructure delivery, social inclusion and the information society.
In addition, my Department chairs the National Implementation Body which was established under the adjustments to the terms of the PPF in December 2000. This body continues to meet as necessary to consider, in particular, the potential implications of any ongoing disputes of special national importance.
I meet representatives of individual social partner organisations on a regular basis, in addition to the annual attendance of the Taoiseach and other Ministers at the PPF plenary meeting in the summer – usually in July – in accordance with established practice.
Deputy Quinn asked for my views as to whether there should be a new national agreement when the PPF expires. I have no hesitation in saying that there should be a new agreement. Social partnership has played a very significant role in the radical transformation of this country's economic and social fortunes since 1987 and this has been acknowledged by employer and trade union representatives in their recent statements. I have noted what people have been saying about the possibility of a return to local level bargaining. We all need to think hard about the implications of such a development in terms of competitiveness, employment and social justice.
The experience of the past shows that, in a free for all, the strong tend to prosper at the expense of the weak. This applies to employers and employees, as well as to those looking for a job and those outside the labour market.
In addition, there is the associated danger of a return to the damaging wage price inflationary spiral and wide-scale industrial relations instability which we experienced in the past and in which, ultimately, we were all the losers.
It is also important to bear in mind that social partnership agreements have not only been about pay. They have allowed the social partners to bring their differing interests, perspectives and expertise to bear in helping to tackle a wide range of complex and interdependent issues of common concern, and in embedding a pro-development approach in our culture and society. These partnership agreements have delivered. It was by working together in a disciplined way that we achieved success in the past in reducing the national debt, promoting enterprise, generating enormous numbers of new jobs and raising living standards generally.
The issues confronting us today, whether in terms of competitiveness, social cohesion or environmental sustainability, are no less complex and challenging and require a similar, collective response. In the past, social partnership has demonstrated a capacity for adapting and evolving and this can, and should, be drawn upon again in meeting current circumstances and concerns. Each agreement has to address the current con cerns of Government and the social partners. There are undoubtedly concerns to be met. However, the focus should be on meeting them and getting the right agreement rather than on the principle of an agreement in itself.
The potential for, and the nature of a new agreement will be dependent on the next Government's programme, the views of the social partners as they evolve, the emerging NESC strategy for the period ahead and the report of the Public Service Benchmarking Body. The scope, duration and nature of any new agreement would be a matter for negotiation between Government and the social partners. However, this Government remains committed to the principle of a new social partnership agreement as the best way of ensuring the economic and social cohesion which is of fundamental importance to ensuring a prosperous, fair and sustainable society.