CORI throws weight behind partnership deal
The CORI Justice Commission, the first of the community and voluntary pillar to accept the agreement, said Ireland’s poorest and most excluded people would be better off with the agreement. The remainder of the social partners are due to decide on whether to support or reject the deal before the end of next month.
Fr Sean Healy of CORI said they had a number of reservations about the terms of the deal, but vowed to ensure the Government honoured its commitments in the area of poverty, inequality and social exclusion.
While it said there were many gains, such as a 50 increase in basic social welfare payments over the next three years, the group said there were also missed opportunities such as the failure to provide enough social housing.
“The commission has always been guided by what would be best for Ireland’s poorest and most excluded people,” said Fr Healy. “The comparison being made was a situation where this agreement was in place and a situation where there was no agreement.”
One of the most significant elements in the deal for CORI was the inclusion of a “flexibility mechanism,” which means that if more resources become available to the State they will be targeted at social inclusion programmes.
Fr Healy said that, while they were deeply disappointed that more resources were not committed to tackling poverty, they would use the agreement to ensure existing promises were not broken: “We intend to use the process offered by social partnership in the years covered by the new programme to hold the Government to account and to ensure it honours its commitments, particularly in the areas of poverty, inequality and social exclusion.” However, not all the community and voluntary pillar are in agreement on the deal.
The Simon Community last week said it would not be supporting it because they felt it will do nothing to tackle homelessness.
A spokesperson for the group said the agreement had effectively been reduced to a pay deal and had ignored many of the social provisions in previous agreements. However, commentators agree that prospects of the partnership agreement being accepted are looking bright.
IMPACT, Ireland’s largest public sector union, last week unanimously voted to recommend acceptance of Sustaining Progress, the official name of the successor to the Partnership for Prosperity and Fairness.
Its general secretary, Peter McLoone, said the deal would bring the full implementation of benchmarking, together with cost-of-living increases that protect living standards.
Other unions will be referring the deal to their members later in the month and it is expected that there will be a final outcome in late March.
