A deal of common sense is contained in the recent offering by the Irish Business and Employers' Confederation (IBEC) entitled: "Social Policy in a Competitive Economy". While emphasising the need to build and maintain a competitive economy, the document "recognises the aspirations of people to improved social services and living and working conditions, and acknowledges that continuing high levels a of investment will be needed to ensure that social cohesion is maintained and increased opportunities are provided for the socially disadvantaged." There are refreshing indications here of new thinking and of an awareness of the interlinked nature of our society. The transformation suggests that the German, rather than the British, economic model is now being taken as a template by Irish business.
There are cogent reasons for the change in tone and in philosophy underlying this development. For the past ten years, Irish employers have benefitted from a succession of national wage agreements - agreed by the social partners - which have limited industrial unrest, controlled wages and helped to create jobs for 180,000 extra people. The benefits continue to feed through, in terms of the highest economic growth rate in Europe and rising profits. It is a winning formula. But the Programme for Competitiveness and Work is now entering its final phase and will end in December.
IBEC does not attempt to disguise its appetite for this type of economic and social planning. But it is firm about priorities. What Ireland needs most, it says, is sustained growth over a period of years during which all costs are carefully controlled. Such an opportunity would allow us to "tackle current disadvantages in such areas as unemployment, industrial investment, infrastructure, national debt and personal taxation."
Long term unemployment is regarded as "perhaps the most serious economic problem facing Ireland".
Special measures are advocated by IBEC to assist such people, through tailored solutions which match individual needs. Such a response would help the morale of the unemployed, it says, and also protect society against "the adverse social consequences of an alienated sector".
IBEC is critical of the education system which, it says, does not meet the needs of many learners or of the economy. Extra resources should be devoted to disadvantaged students and more attention should be paid to "the three R's", to continental languages, computer literacy, along with science, technology and engineering. Information on the performance of individual schools in public examinations should be publicly available "with a view to taking steps to in crease quality and equality throughout the system, it says. The document is a useful contribution to the wider social debate within the context of a new national wage agreement.