Sustaining Progress - Department of Taoiseach

Overview Sustaining Progress
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Overview
Background
The negotiations on a new National Agreement were formally launched on 31 October, 2002.
The National Economic and Social Council (NESC) Strategy Report, An Investment in Quality: Services,
Inclusion and Enterprise provided a background for the negotiations.
The parties to the negotiations included the Government, employers, trade unions, farming bodies and the
community and voluntary sector as follows: Irish Business and Employers’ Confederation (IBEC), Irish
Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), Construction Industry Federation (CIF), Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA), Irish
Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA), Irish Co-Operative Organisation Society Ltd. (ICOS), Macra na
Feirme, Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed (INOU), Congress Centres for the Unemployed, The
Community Platform1 , Conference of Religious of Ireland (CORI), National Womens’ Council of Ireland
(NWCI), National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI), Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, Protestant Aid, Small
Firms’ Association (SFA), Irish Exporters’ Association (IEA), Irish Tourist Industry Confederation (ITIC) and
Chambers of Commerce of Ireland (CCI).
The negotiations have resulted in Sustaining Progress, covering a wide range of issues as set out below.
Sustaining Progress focuses on what is necessary to make the economy:
■ Competitive in a changing world;
■ Environmentally sustainable;
■ Efficient through finding and implementing appropriate market and regulatory regimes in different
areas; and
■ Socially acceptable.
The shared overall goal of the new Agreement covering the period 2003-2005 is to continue progress towards
the realisation of the NESC vision for Irish society in a period of considerable uncertainty, and to do this by
sustaining economic growth and maintaining high levels of employment and securing living standards for
all, while strengthening the economy’s competitiveness and thereby its capacity to resume trend growth in
more favourable international conditions.
1 Currently there are 26 participant organisations in the community platform: - Age Action Ireland, Community Action
Network, Community Workers Co-op, European Anti-Poverty Network, Forum of People with Disabilities, Gay and Lesbian
Network, Irish Association of Older People, Irish Commission for Prisoners Overseas, Irish National Organisation of the
Unemployed, Irish Penal Reform Trust, Irish Refugee Council, Irish Rural Link, Irish Traveller Movement, National Adult
Literacy Agency, National Network of Women’s Refuges and Support Services, National Traveller Women’s Forum,
National Women’s Council of Ireland, One Parent Exchange and Network, Pavee Point Travellers Centre, Rape Crisis
Network Ireland, Simon Communities of Ireland, Society of St Vincent de Paul, Threshold, Voluntary Drug Treatment
Network, Vincentian Partnership for Justice, Women’s Aid.