The Government and the social partners are "staring failure in the face" in attempts to agree a national economic recovery programme, one of the country's leading trade unionists said today.
Addressing Impact's biennial local government conference in Castlebar, Co Mayo, Impact general secretary Peter McLoone said he was not posturing but presenting an honest analysis of the "abyss we are now facing".
He said that next week the Government would have to set out a comprehensive response to proposals from the social partners for an integrated response to the current crisis.
Mr McLoone, who is also chairman of the State training agency Fás, forecast that unemployment could reach 584,000 by Christmas. He said the Government would need to provide a concrete response - not just rhetoric - to calls by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions for a €1 billion State investment in job creation and protection measures.
Mr McLoone also said that if the social partners failed to reach an agreement or if the Government and employers continued to seek to impose cuts, even as talks are under way, that "participation in negotiations will not stop public sector unions from taking industrial action if this is necessary to protect jobs, pay, pensions, and services".
Mr McLoone said Impact would not accept any agreement that did not protect members pay levels, pension arrangements - including the tax-free status of retirement lump sums - or provide for an agreed framework for public service employment levels and promotions.
Speaking on the controversies surrounding excessive spending at Fás, Mr McLoone told delegates that if he had known about this practice, he would not have taken the job of chairman in the first place. He said that he had initially wanted to turn down the post when it had been offered to him three years ago when he was Ictu president.
However, he said the view in the trade union movement had been that while Charlie McCreevy and Mary Harney had held important ministries, the chairmanship of key economic agencies had gone to the business community. He said while the trade unions had been represented on these bodies, they did not have influence.
He said it was felt by congress that if he did not take the post as Fás chairman, there was a danger it would go elsewhere. Mr McLoone said that "when the heat came on" in relation to Fás last November that his initial reaction was to walk away.
However, he felt that he owed a duty to the 98 per cent of the agency staff who were "entirely innocent". He told delegates at the conference that his remuneration for the role of Fás chairman was "nothing to write home about" and that he claimed no further expenses.