A new type of social partnership offering universal health care, State-backed pensions and targeted welfare in return for public and private sector reforms is being proposed by Fine Gael Enterprise, Trade and Employment Spokesman Leo Varadkar TD today (Thursday).

Addressing the Industrial Relations News conference in the O’Reilly Hall in UCD this afternoon, Deputy Varadkar TD called for a national effort to restore competitiveness and fiscal balance. Workers would exchange pay moderation, industrial peace and public sector reform for profit-sharing, gain-sharing and social progress from business and Government.

“The opportunity exists for a new government to create a new model of social partnership that is both fit for purpose for the 21st century, and more in keeping with the original principles of partnership.

“I envisage a new social contract, a sort of National Competitiveness and Equality Pact, in which workers deliver competitiveness and reform in the public and private sectors in return for greater equality and social progress. This would take the form of universal health care, universal State-backed pensions and greater protection from unemployment through a new flexicurity-based welfare system.

“In the private sector, I envisage workers offering wage restraint, industrial peace and co-operation with modernisation for profit-sharing and greater workplace involvement. In the public sector, I envisage public servants engaging in a total transformation of the public sector in return for a restoration of pay scales over time.

“Social Partnership served us well in the late 1980s and early in 1990s, but lost its way during the Ahern era. The social partners merely carved up the gains from the Celtic Tiger among themselves, often to the exclusion of small businesses, the self-employed, consumers and public service users. Very little real social progress was made in terms of access to health care, child care, pensions, equality or welfare reform. This model did not survive the downturn. It never could.

“To the extent that the formal structures of social partnership remain in place, they must be more democratic and have greater legitimacy. There should be a broader base of stakeholders including independent SMEs, the self-employed, consumers and taxpayer advocates and users of public services. Above all, it must respect the supremacy of the Dáil. Any round of negotiations should begin with a motion agreed by the Dáil setting out the Government’s objectives and all future national agreements must be subject to Dáil debate and approval.”