Croke Park deal faces ‘whole new ball game in 2011’

THE new year will see a “whole new ball game” for the Croke Park agreement due to the worsening economic crisis, Labour Relations Commission chief executive Kieran Mulvey told an Oireachtas Committee yesterday.

Appearing before the Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, Mr Mulvey, who was central to brokering the public sector reform deal agreed between unions and the public sector managers at Croke Park late in March said he had hoped that the agreement’s implementation would have taken place at a more “rapid” pace.

However, he stressed the benefits of the agreement saying if the governments of France, Portugal or Spain thought they could get a similar public service agreement they “would welcome it with open arms”.