A return to old-style social partnership is not on the cards, Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers said on Wednesday morning, although he reiterated his appeal for public sector unions to join talks on a new pay agreement.
The current public sector pay agreement, which has run since 2024, expired on Tuesday. Unions have said they do not believe the scope exists for talks on a new deal at present, and have suggested they may seek a series of localised pay increases.
Chambers said on Tuesday morning he wanted to see talks beginning soon but said he does not “envisage returning to a form of social partnership, which we had in the noughties”.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has recently spoken warmly of the benefits of social partnership and there is understood to be some appetite among the unions for a broader agreement.
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Chambers, however, was sceptical about the idea on Wednesday. He said the Government already had the “Leef structure” – the labour, employers and economic forum – where “wider issues across society and the economy are discussed”.
“But the public sector pay agreement is around looking at the wider inflation environment, looking at the sustainability of what’s available in the context of the next number of years. And also trying to drive the reform agenda in how we deliver better for the public,” he said, pointing to the “significant increases in public services that we’ve already allocated ... in recent years”.
Chambers warned: “We won’t be agreeing a public sector pay agreement at any cost.
“Any additional increase in public sector pay has to be accommodated within the fiscal parameters that we’ve set in the medium term fiscal and structural plan. And that’s why trying to build an agreement and build consensus around an agreement between now and early October is critical to providing that forward planning,” he said.
Chambers was speaking at Government Buildings where he announced measures designed to help speed up infrastructure projects.
“We are now making historic investments and infrastructure across the country, and we’re building the water, electricity, transport connections. They will make everything else possible, particularly housing,” he said.
He said a new initiative to communicate the benefits of major infrastructure projects would “tackle nimbyism head on, reduce opposition, cut down on judicial reviews and get more critical infrastructure built, much, much faster”.
