Leaders of the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) took stock of the achievements of the past 30 years and the challenges of the future at yesterday's conference.

Founding chairman Prof Louden Ryan recalled the organisation's infancy. He said one of the first lessons was that agreement between the then four "great interests" - the public service, employers, workers and farmers - if achieved at all, was generally only at a high level of generality. The absence of specific recommendations was the cause of constant tension between the new group and the Department of Finance, its then sponsor, he recalled.

Mr Paddy Teahon, chairman between 1995 and 1999, said some of the key strengths of the NESC were the concept of shared understanding, the encouragement of a long-term dimension to its work and its efforts in implementing social partnership.

However, he accepted that the policy framework developed in the Ireland of the mid-1980s, where unemployment and fiscal deficits loomed large, might well not be appropriate for the very different Ireland of today.

He agreed with sentiments expressed by other speakers that attention in the past had been more on economic than social issues. "It seems to be necessary to bring the same clarity to social issues," he said.

Mr Eric Conroy of the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed questioned the group's "total focus" on a three-year cycle of social partnership.

IBEC's director-general, Mr Brian Geoghegan, cautioned against overemphasising the social aspect as opposed to the economic.

Central Bank governor Mr John Hurley said the contribution of the NESC to the development of the Irish economy had been "immense". He welcomed the idea of a reassessment of the group's role as it marked 30 years.

"We have a different Ireland now with very new challenges facing us," he said, alluding to European economic and monetary union, the challenge of global competition for foreign investment and the impact of foreign exchange fluctuation.