The social partners yesterday moved a step closer to creating a new 10-year national agreement covering a range of social and economic issues.
While talks on a pay deal continue separately at Government Buildings, negotiations on the wider social agenda have also intensified.
While all previous partnership agreements have run for three-year periods, there is now a consensus that any new agreement should have a 10-year framework.
Cori justice commission director Fr Seán Healy said his organisation had been arguing for some time that many of the most critical issues facing society could not be addressed within a two- to three-year framework.
These included social housing, health, education, long-term unemployment, public transport and issues of concern to people with disabilities.
Irish Congress of Trade Unions general secretary David Begg has also been advocating a longer-term partnership deal than has been the norm, a position that was endorsed by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern at the outset of the current talks.
Further moves towards the creation of a 10-year agreement took place at a plenary session of the social partners yesterday, and intensive negotiations are expected next week.
As a member of the community and voluntary "pillar" of social partnership, Cori has proposed that any new agreement must contain specific initiatives in four key areas.
It wants a new partnership programme to
: address Ireland's infrastructural deficits, especially in social housing and public transport;
secure "appropriate levels of service provision" in areas such as healthcare, education, social care and employment services;
ensure everyone has sufficient income to live life with dignity, especially through increasing social welfare rates and tackling the "working poor" issue;
maximise the participation of all of Ireland's people in their own development and in the development of the wider society.
Fr Healy said he was confident that a new agreement would deliver more specific targets in these areas than had been the case under previous deals, including Sustaining Progress.
It is understood implementation of the new programme will most likely be reviewed at intervals coinciding with national pay talks.
If employers, unions and the Government agree a three-year pay deal then all the social partners will return in three years' time to assess progress in delivery of the programme's overall targets.
