Ahern refuses to intervene in partnership talks

The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, has told the Dail that he has no plans to intervene in talks on a new national pay deal which broke down in Dublin early today.

The negotiations on a successor to the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness collapsed due to the apparently irreconcilable gap between the two main negotiators, the employer's group IBEC and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.