NINETEEN organisations were represented at the talks on a successor to the Programme for Competitiveness and Work in Dublin Castle yesterday. It should have been 20 but the Irish Small and Medium Enterprise Association withdrew because it was not included in core pay discussions.
Those involved in core talks will be the Government, which employs 200,000 people (£5 billion a year); the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, which represents 500,000 unionised workers; the Irish Business and Employers Confederation, with over 5,000 affiliated enterprises; and farmers' organisations (the Irish Farmers Association, the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association, the Irish Co-Operative Society and Macra na Feirme, which together represent 150,000 farming families).
Those invited to attend talks for the first time include the Irish National Organisation for the Unemployed, the ICTU sponsored Centres for the Unemployed, the Community Platform, representing bodies in the voluntary/community sector, the Irish Exporters' Association, the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation, the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland, the Conference of Religious of Ireland, the National Women's Council of Ireland, the Society of St Vincent de Paul, Protestant Aid and the Small Firms Association.