A three-year social partnership agreement could still be on the cards, despite the proposed 18-month deal on pay and other issues.
In a letter to representatives of the community and voluntary sector this week, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said he envisaged a three-year agreement.
The pay deal already proposed would form part of such an agreement, but would have to be renegotiated at the half-way point.
Community and voluntary groups, who resumed negotiations with the Government yesterday, have yet to decide whether to pursue a shorter or longer deal.
Ms Frances Byrne of the Community Platform, which received the letter from Mr Ahern, said one disadvantage of an 18-month agreement would be that it would cover just one Budget.
On the other hand, the wider terms of a three-year agreement could "get lost or be dropped" in the event of a new pay deal in 18 months.
The platform would be holding discussions among its 26 member organisations before reaching a position on the matter, she said.
Ms Byrne said adequate incomes for all and improved social infrastructure, including social housing, would be priorities for the Community Platform in talks.
The proposed provision of 10,000 affordable houses, part of the deal worked out at the weekend, was welcome, she said, but it did not help those who were on housing lists or were homeless.
"It does nothing for people who cannot afford a house at all and our concern is that the 'affordable housing' element will be at the expense of social housing."
In separate partnership talks yesterday, farm leaders told Government officials that they expected the same degree of attention to their problems as unions and employers had received at the weekend.
The proposed pay deal, comprising a 7 per cent increase in phases over 18 months, followed the intervention of Mr Ahern and senior Cabinet colleagues.
An Irish Farmers' Association spokesman said farmers had not been "treated properly" by the partnership process to date.
The Government would have to "engage seriously" with them if farmers were to sign up to an agreement.
The IFA president, Mr John Dillon, said the resumption of talks provided an "ideal vehicle" to address the low-income situation in farming, if there was "sufficient political commitment from the Government to grasp the opportunity".
A commitment by the Government to provide the necessary financial resources was essential to secure an agreement, he said.
Talks with all four social partners - the farmers, community and voluntary sector, unions and employers - will continue through next week, with a view to having an agreement in place within about 10 days.
Talks on a programme of modernisation and change in the public service, to which unions must agree before the benchmarking increases are paid in full, were continuing yesterday.
Mark Brennock adds: The Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny, has said that the full benchmarking payments to public servants must only be made if there is agreement to set clear targets for the improvement of public services.
Fine Gael was demanding value not only from the money spent on public services but from the people appointed to manage them, he said.
Speaking to Dundalk Chamber of Commerce yesterday, Mr Kenny said record Government spending in many areas over the last five years had brought "no visible improvement in services".
He claimed the Government was a stranger to the concept of value for money or efficiency. "The new pay/partnership agreement proposes to implement the full increases contained in the benchmarking report.
"This must be linked to clear targets for performance, accountability, evaluation and delivery of quality services."
Referring to recent protests by farmers and bus workers, he said that as more sections of society protest, the Government would learn "the sobering lesson of cause and effect.
"When you buy an election, when you buy that most precious symbol of democracy, the vote, you pay the price."
He said that in the area of health, what was required was the appointment of more medical personnel such as doctors, nurses, midwives, anaesthetists, radiographers, physiotherapists, speech therapists and language therapists.
Instead, the Government had provided "40 per cent more managers and a greater number of health boards," the Fine Gael leader said.
