Share wealth evenly or national pay deal will collapse, State warned

THE next national pay deal will collapse unless the Government distributes wealth more evenly, a top political historian has warned.

Most workers feel left behind by the Celtic Tiger, which was built on the back of restrained wage agreements but generated a lot of wealth for a small sector, Professor Gearóid O Tuathaigh said.

"The challenge for the new Government is to show political leadership and do what they failed to do during the boom years of 10% economic growth," Prof O Tuathaigh added.

This view has been backed over the summer by top union leaders, who also warned a new pay agreement cannot be secured without a fairer deal for workers.

Prof O Tuathaigh said the Government must adopt a new collective effort to share out wealth and drop the pragmatic management approach used in the last pay deal. "Many workers feel left behind because the wealth was only distributed among a specific small sector in the 25-50 age group," Prof O Tuathaigh told RTE.

He said the Government needs a new civic culture that will:

* Deliver fairness between the rich and poor

* Help the elderly and very young.

* Help marginalised communities

* Redress the imbalance between Dublin and the rest of the country.

"Why, for example, does the Bertie Bowl have to be built in Dublin? There is not even a thought of locating it in the regions," the UCG professor said.

Another top historian, Professor Joe Lee was critical of the Government's delay in publishing the blueprint for national development the spatial strategy.

This was promised 30 years ago, but in the meantime we have seen a huge imbalanced concentration of population in the Dublin region, with consequent massive traffic problems, the UCC Head of History added.

Both believe the Celtic Tiger masked a lack of social cohesion that was not addressed by political parties. And those who tried to bring it to the top of the agenda were marginalised.

These include groups like the Conference of Religious groups in Ireland (CORI) and radical trade unionists.

But a Government spokesman rejected the claims that this Government has failed to deliver social cohesion in the wake of the Celtic Tiger boom. "Most people will accept they have more money in their pockets because of the Celtic Tiger, and the Government will do its best to negotiate a new fair wage agreement for workers," their spokesman added.