The Conference of Religious of Ireland (CORI) has played an admirable role in public discourse over recent years. Amid the euphoria about economic growth and a new wave of conspicuous consumption, CORI's has been a questioning and challenging voice. It has raised, indeed it continues to raise, searching questions about the true nature of Irish society and about our sense of social solidarity.
In its latest paper, Towards a New Vision of Social Partnership, the joint directors of CORI's Justice Commission, Father Sean Healy and Sister Brigid Reynolds say that any successor to Partnership 2000 "should start with discussions aimed at getting agreement in principle on what proportions of expected growth should go towards particular areas, such as tax cuts, pay increases, infras-tructural development and tackling social exclusion. CORI advocates an new approach in which, for example, trade unions might trade projected pay increases for tax reductions or employers might trade part of their profits for greater infrastructural spending".
The notion that trade unions might trade off pay increases for tax cuts is scarcely radical; indeed it has already become an integral part of modern industrial relations. By contrast, CORI's vision of employers yielding profits to help boost the national infrastructure is a bold initiative but, in truth, one which appears impractical and unrealistic.
This is not to lessen the scale of the infrastructural challenge facing this State; the ESRI estimates that some £47 billion is required to bring our infrastructure up to the level taken for granted in other EU states. While the EU will play some role in providing support for infrastructural projects, it is already clear that most of them will have to be financed by partnerships between the State and the private sector.
Indeed the Government will shortly publish a discussion paper on public/private partnerships. In such circumstances, it seems unlikely the CORI proposal will take flight. The private sector appears ready to play its part in building up our infrastructure but it will expect to be paid the market price for its work.
Discussions on a successor to Partnership 2000 are expected to begin in earnest in the autumn amid concerns - raised by one senior ICTU official at a CORI conference this week - that social partnership at national level is showing signs of fatigue and needs to be re-invigorated. The unprecedented level of economic growth means that the next round of negotiations will take place against a very different backdrop; with their expectations raised, workers are determined to stake their claim in the State's economic success.
Employers are equally determined to protect the competitiveness of the economy. It seems already clear that any new agreement will be more flexible than its predecessors with, perhaps, a greater emphasis on performance-related pay in the public service and greater freedom given to unions and employers for local bargaining in the private sector. It is to be hoped the CORI emphases on the need to tackle social exclusion and integrate the long term unemployed into the workforce receive their due priority.