Social partnership must demonstrate its worth in addressing child poverty and educational disadvantage which have the potential to undermine our economy, a conference was told yesterday. Dominic Coyle reports.
Dr Rory O'Donnell, director of the National Economic and Social Council, told the conference marking the group's 30th anniversary that the public wanted solutions rather than an ideological impasse.
"It is no longer an option for the social partners to sit on committees or working groups that are deadlocked by disagreement between the ideologies of unions, employers and the community and voluntary sector."
Opening the conference, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, called for a new emphasis on implementation of policy, especially in relation to benchmarking.
"Fifteen years of policy innovation and partnership have shown that agreement on a strategic approach means little if policy cannot be implemented effectively," he said.
He said ensuring "real and verifiable outputs" in relation to modernisation and flexibility in the public service was a crucial challenge facing the Government as it begins paying the benchmarking awards.
"The challenge of achieving real change in the public sector presents an opportunity to demonstrate the capacity of partnership to deliver," he said.
Columbia Law School Prof Charles Sabel echoed an earlier contribution from the deputy director of the Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy, Prof Anton Hemerijck on the remaking of the welfare state and suggested that the notion of partnership itself "has to be rethunk".
He promoted the notion of "deliberative democracy" and argued that it was no longer sufficient to try to match those paying into the system and those being supported. Instead, the social partners should promote "activation", giving people the tools to maximise their opportunities .
This "new public good" means customising public services to the needs of individual users, he said, using education as an example.
Panellist Ms Mary Murphy from the DCU School of Law and Government, warned there was plenty of work outstanding before policy goals were redefined. "Implementation is the key challenge that we have failed to crack to date," she said. "There has been a mismatch between making policy and its implementation."
Prof Frances Ruane, from Trinity College, urged the NESC to expand the areas it addressed, turning its attention particularly to spatial planning, immigration and innovation.
Chairman Mr Dermot McCarthy closed the conference by telling delegates that the NESC should "glory in the successes of the past" while being "suitably daunted by the challenges that face us".
