Two groups critical of national pay agreements have announced plans to mobilise public support before negotiations begin on a successor to Partnership 2000.
"Share the Wealth" is the title chosen by the National Anti-Poverty Networks coalition to highlight the failure of successive agreements to close the gap between rich and poor.
At a press conference to announce a mass rally in Dublin on October 20th, organisers said that between 1994 and 1997 average incomes rose by 22 per cent, but social welfare rates rose by no more than 12 per cent.
Twenty per cent of households are living on less than half the average national income, they said, and nearly a third of Irish children live in poverty.
Mr Fintan Farrell of the Irish Travellers Movement said that social partnership could only work if the voluntary and community sectors were given a greater say in negotiations on a successor to Partnership 2000.
Asked what would happen if there was no new national agreement, he said that groups represented in the NAPN would be "quite happy to be on the streets lobbying if we have to".
However, it was quite clear that many organisations felt they had a better chance of securing more resources for vulnerable sectors of society through a new agreement.
At a separate press conference yesterday, a group of shop stewards announced what they hope will be "the biggest rank-and-file conference in a decade" to discuss alternatives to social partnership.
They said that workers had lost out under Partnership 2000. The conference is to be held in the Teachers' Club, Parnell Square, Dublin.