Trade unions representing staff at Forbairt and the Irish Trade Board, soon to be merged as Enterprise Ireland, have condemned the lack of union representation on the new agency's 12member board.

MSF national secretary, Mr John Tierney, said the Tanaiste's failure to appoint a trade union representative to the Enterprise Ireland board "flies in the face" of the whole notion of social partnership. He called on Ms Harney to rectify the situation as a matter of urgency.

"The Tanaiste's omission is in stark contrast to the practice in the organisations which are being merged to form the new agency, where there has been union representation for years." Under the current structure, the SIPTU president, Mr Jimmy Somers, is a director of Forbairt, while the former SIPTU general secretary, Mr Bill Attley, is on the board of the Irish Trade Board. anaiste's failure to appoint a representative of the trade union movement clearly then runs contrary to what is well established practise with all governments in recent years," Mr Tierney said.

He added that the only conclusion the trade union movement could draw from the Tanaiste's appointments to Enterprise Ireland is that she feels the movement has no useful role to play in the development of indigenous industry. A spokesman for the Tanaiste strongly rejected the union criticism yesterday. He stated that the ultimate employers of staff at the two agencies was Forfas, the agency where the ICTU general secretary, Mr Peter Cassells, is a board member.