Begg confident of pay deal

THE country’s trade union head said yesterday that gloomy economic predictions should not prevent workers getting substantial increases in a new wage agreement.

By comparison with the rest of the European Union, the economy was still in a healthy position, according to Irish Congress of Trade Unions general secretary David Begg.

Viewing the Department of Finance’s prediction of a 3% economic growth rate as pessimistic, Mr Begg sided with economists who said that, based on exports, a growth rate of between five and five and a half per cent could be expected