• Chapter 11:
  Action on Partnership and Monitoring
  
  

Chapter 11:
Action on Partnership and Monitoring

11.1 - Partnership through this national agreement involves, in particular, a shared understanding of the key mechanisms and relationships in the formulation and implementation of policy.

11.2 - The partnership process reflects inter-dependence between the partners. The partnership is necessary because no party can achieve its goals without a significant degree of support and commitment from others.

11.3 - Partnership is characterised by a problem-solving approach, in which various interest groups address joint problems. Partnership involves trade-offs both between and within interest groups. The partnership process involves different participants on various agenda items, ranging from the principles of national macroeconomic policy to the specifics of local development.

11.4 - All Social Partners accept that the benefits of economic growth be shared by all citizens in a manner that reflects this country's commitment to social solidarity and a better quality of life for all our people.

11.5 - It is important that arrangements should be put in place at national, sectoral and local level, including the workplace, to benchmark and monitor the Partnership. A significant part of these new arrangements has been set down in Chapters 9 and 10.

11.6 - Participation in the partnership process evolved relative to the discussions on the current document. It is clear that many different issues arise where participation is important. It is also clear that different groups have different interests across those issues. For the development of partnership, it is agreed that, in addition to Government:

• there will be four pillars to the partnership process:
  • farming organisations;
  • community and voluntary organisations;
  • trade unions; and
  • employer and business organisations.
• it will be a matter for each pillar to the partnership process to decide in the context of existing arrangements, on the appropriate representation from its side in any case which is dealt with on a partnership basis;
• in the case of the pillar representing fanning organisations, trade unions and employers/business organisations, this shall be achieved by agreement between those organisations in each pillar who participated in discussions leading up to this Partnership, and the primary organisations represented on the CRC under the PCW, taking account of practical issues such as the overall size of delegations; and
• in the case of community and voluntary organisations, delegations will be decided by discussions and agreement of the groups who participated in the discussions leading up to this Partnership.

11.7 - The arrangements agreed on for the development of national level partnership will involve:

• the NESC, in consultation with the relevant Government Departments, benchmarking (Irish) progress in the areas covered in the Partnership both over time and by comparison with other countries;
• the NESF, in addition to providing opinions on policy issues featuring in its work programme, will be asked to provide opinions at six monthly intervals on the development of the provisions of the Partnership agreement regarding social inclusion and equality. In undertaking this task the NESF will put in place a process to ensure that the four pillars of the partnership can participle in the preparation of these opinions. They will take account of the benchmarking analysis provided by NESC and will consult with relevant Departments as appropriate;
• for those parties that negotiated the pay agreement, the modernisation of enterprises and the modernisation of the Public Service, there will be meetings at six monthly intervals to review and monitor the operation of those elements;
• a meeting of all the parties to the Partnership, chaired by the Taoiseach, will be convened annually;
• quarterly meetings of members of the four pillars under the auspices of the Department of the Taoiseach will be held to review and monitor the operation of the Partnership agreement; and
• any party to the Partnership may raise an issue regarding any aspect of the operation of the Partnership with the Secretary, Department of the Taoiseach who may, following consultation with the Partners, convene a special meeting of the parties to the agreement.

11.8 - The monitoring procedures for the Partnership will be reviewed following the publication in 1997 of the NESF Report on a Framework for Partnership and in the light of the terms of office of both NESC and NESF expiring at the end of 1997.