Social partnership is back on track. It’s not a move in Wright direction

Next week, social partnership, under a different name, will be resurrected and restarted writes Gerard Howlin

LAST week, we had the Government’s Spring Statement, another small installment on budgetary reform. It’s easy to be underwhelmed, but, critical as you may be, in big-picture terms the Government laid out its stall.

I bet my bottom dollar no opposition party will respond with an offering that gives less, or plans a less rosy economic scenario. Imprudent as it certainly is, the Government’s analysis has instantly become an opening offer, not a final bid, in terms of treats we can choose from.