Sustaining Progress - Department of Taoiseach

Section 15: Health and Safety at Work
15.1 It is agreed that, as provided for in the PPF, all Health Boards will continue to earmark funding for
health promotion to be delivered at the level of the workplace - these activities to include:
■ preventative health screening (in particular for cancers and heart disease); and
■ measures to combat smoking and alcohol abuse at the level of the enterprise.
15.2 The parties to this Agreement also support the measures agreed in the review of the Safety, Health
and Welfare at Work Act, 1989, which will be implemented during 2003.
15.3 The Construction Safety partnership and its associated joint initiatives have made a significant
contribution to improving safety performance within a large segment of the construction industry.
These initiatives will be developed with the aim of improving the safety performance of the entire
industry.
Section 16: Hidden Economy Monitoring Group
16.1 This Group, which includes representatives of the Revenue Commissioners, the Department of Social
and Family Affairs, CIF, IBEC and ICTU, will continue to meet as appropriate to monitor developments
and review the effectiveness of measures to combat tax evasion and social welfare fraud.
Section 17: Pensions
17.1 The parties to this Agreement share the objectives of the parties to the PPF in relation to pensions,
namely that all retired people should have adequate incomes; that the level of coverage of
occupational pension schemes should be increased; and that the social partners will co-operate to
promote improvements in the coverage of pension schemes towards the agreed National Pensions
Policy Initiative (NPPI) target of 70% of the total workforce over age 30.
17.2 The parties recognise that while there have been significant increases in the number of workers
covered by occupational and other pension schemes, coverage as a proportion of our greatlyexpanded
workforce is still only just over 50% and that almost half the workforce has no entitlement
at all to any pension other than a social welfare pension.
17.3 The parties also recognise that there are two new developments which give cause for concern:
(i) due to the exceptionally prolonged period for which equity markets have now yielded poor returns
to pension funds, the position of many funded schemes is now difficult and in some cases a cause
for concern,
(ii) the emerging realisation that the current level of contribution to Defined Contribution schemes is,
in many cases, inadequate.
17.4 In the light of these significant concerns, the parties recognise that appropriate measures must
be taken to ensure the protection of all existing pension arrangements, the introduction of new
occupational and/or personal pensions for nearly half the workforce and the improvement of many
of the pension schemes to which the other half of the workforce belongs.
Part 2 Pay and the Workplace
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