IBEC and unions — the watchdogs that didn’t bark

DESPITE the Taoiseach clinging tenaciously to the concept, the principal stakeholders of social partnership have been reduced to empty rhetoric and the threat of disruption that will be seen in due course to resolve nothing.

Social partnership has demonstrated some focus, coherence and purpose when the objective was merely to divide incremental perceived wealth. But there appears to be no scope for partnership when there is no wealth to divide, hence the grandstanding.

The publication of the Comptroller & Auditor General’s second special report into Fás undermines the authenticity of IBEC and the trade unions as social partnership stakeholders to the point where this concept has probably run its course.