THE Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association (ISME); said it supported negotiations for a fourth national pay agreement. However, it wanted to be included in the deliberations. And the association criticised RTE for its coverage of the Programme for Competitiveness and Work (PCW).

Mr Eoghan Hynes, chairman, ISME, said the agreement must be inclusive of all socio economic groups and have the clear objective of seriously tackling the unemployment problem. Previous national agreements have been approved "by an elite within an elite" and were "never put to the people". As a result, the unemployed and the small and medium enterprise were disenfranchised", said Mr Hynes.

Quoting the recent Institute of European Affairs' report which said allegiance can only be won on the basis of legitimacy, he argued that "by this yardstick the current social dialogue procedures lack legitimacy. Not only are discussions confined to an elite of an elite, but the democratic process and political representatives are excluded from the exercise".

Mr Hynes, speaking at the annual dinner of the Castlebar Chamber of Commerce dinner over the weekend, also said that RTE has been both "unstinting in its praise and uncritical in its coverage of the PCW" and "has not facilitated a debate" on the absence of ISME (or INOU) from the deliberations.