Partnership must be for all, not just for elite, rally told

Real social partnership must be for all working people, "not just for a small elite who have been robbing from the poor", the vice-president of SIPTU said yesterday.

At a "Share The Wealth" protest at Leinster House yesterday, Mr Des Geraghty said the trade unions would be demanding that Government begin to redistribute wealth in its next social partnership talks.

The protest, which was organised by the National Anti-Poverty Networks, was attended by about 400 people including representatives from the Society of St Vincent de Paul, the Irish Organisation of the Unemployed, the Irish Traveller Movement and the Forum of People with Disabilities.

The campaign is calling for a "massive one-off strategic investment package to compensate communities who have been excluded from the Celtic Tiger boom"; expenditure plans in the Budget which show "commitment to eradicating poverty and social exclusion"; tax cuts directed at the lower paid and the strengthening of public institutions to ensure the National Anti-Poverty Strategy is properly implemented.

Mr Mike Allen, general secretary of the INOU, said his organisation was not congratulating the Government for reaching its antipoverty targets - as the targets had already been reached when originally set. "The only target you can have is the elimination of poverty," he said.

Ms Mary Murphy of the Society of St Vincent de Paul, Ms Maureen Ward of the Irish Traveller Movement and Mr Donal Tolan of the Forum of People With Disabilities also spoke.