Sustaining Progress - Department of Taoiseach

1.8 Institutional Arrangements
The institutions of social partnership have developed over the past fifteen years. In addition to
the formal process of the quarterly review mechanism provided by the plenary meetings, other
institutions now in place to support the process of Partnership include:
■ the National Economic and Social Development Office (NESDO) encompassing NESC, the National
Economic and Social Forum (NESF) and the National Centre for Partnership and Performance (NCPP);
■ the Public Transport Partnership Forum, the Housing Forum, the National Anti-Poverty Strategy
Consultative Committee, the Public Private Partnership (PPP) Advisory Group, National Childcare
Co-ordinating Committee, the National Rural Development Forum, the Standing Committee on the
Labour Market, the Forum for the Construction Industry and Comhar, the National Sustainable
Development Partnership; and
■ specific sectoral consultative mechanisms involving relevant social partners, such as workplace
and industrial relations institutions including the National Implementation Body (NIB).
1.9 New Mechanisms
The following arrangements for engagement with the social partners in relation to the wider policy
framework are proposed:
■ a Steering Group for the Agreement representing Government and four representatives from each
of the social partner pillars, will be established with overall responsibility for management of the
implementation of the Agreement;
■ the Steering Group will review, monitor and report on progress in the implementation/progression
of the wider policy framework at the quarterly plenary meetings;
■ social partners will be engaged by relevant Government Departments on specific policy proposals,
on the basis of the agreed terms of engagement set out in the Agreement;
■ any issues or difficulties in relation to engagement on issues covered by these chapters can be
raised with the Steering Group. The Steering Group may make recommendations as appropriate to
ensure the effective delivery of the spirit and intent of the Agreement; and
■ the Steering Group will also identify, prioritise, timescale and agree those issues which require
further study or examination within any of the relevant Institutional Arrangements identified in
the Agreement.
1.10 Special Initiatives
In addition to setting out the overall scope of the Agreement, Chapter 2 sets out the ten Special
Initiatives to be progressed in the context of a new Agreement covering what can be regarded as an
interim period of particular difficulty and uncertainty. These are all major crosscutting issues, that
require the mobilisation of a range of resources across sectors, organisations and individuals and at
different levels of Government. In approaching such issues, the emphasis should be on working
together, building consensus and adopting a problem-solving approach to finding practical solutions.
Importantly, it will bring clearly into focus the need to choose between the various demands
for the use of scarce resources - financial and other.
Chapter 1 Introduction
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