Sir, – Des Derwin (Letters, May 24th) argues against social partnership, asserting that the last experience of it was bad for workers.
Social partnership delivered two remarkable achievements for workers and for Ireland in the 20 years to 2007.
The first was a doubling of total employment within that 20 years. Total employment in Ireland had stood at around 1.1 million from independence to 1987. Doubling this was a remarkable feat, providing workers with jobs and ending emigration.
The second achievement was the doubling in living standards of the average industrial worker by the doubling of their take-home pay in those 20 years. This improvement in Irish workers’ living standards, in such a short period, was a great success.
The collapse in social partnership was not due to a boom in public spending or excessive wages. It collapsed when the State almost imploded due to the insane property bubble, no bank regulation, wildly imprudent bankers and, in part, tax-driven property speculation. The neoliberal policies of the government adopted in the late 1990s ultimately led to the crisis and so to a precipitous fall in tax revenue. This meant it had to cut back on everything. This included imposing large cuts in public sector pay, thus unilaterally terminating the social partnership agreements.
From 2001, the unions had warned the government of the dangers of its uber-liberal economic policies – to no avail. – Yours, etc,
PAUL SWEENEY,
Milltown,
Dublin 6.