The Success of Social Partnership

national | miscellaneous | news report Thursday June 12, 2003 14:11 by Justin Moran - Sinn Fein maigh_nuad at yahoo dot com

Transcript of speech by Deputy Seán Crowe on Social Partnership

I would like to share my time with Deputy Martin Ferris.

The debate on the legislation before us today has become a debate about whether or not social partnership has been a success. I want to put on record my firm belief that social partnership has been extremely successful. It has succeeded in creating one of the most unequal societies in the developed world. It has succeeded in maximising profits, and minimising wages. It has succeeded in pushing the agenda of organisations like IBEC and their political wing the Progressive Democrats. It has done all this at the expense of Irish workers. When Deputy Kitt in a contribution to the debate earlier said that social partnership has served Ireland well, he should have clarified exactly what section of Ireland he was referring to.

There has been great talk during this debate about the levels of economic growth stimulated by, according to Government TDs, social partnership. Of course to talk about economic growth is itself a deeply flawed way of determining the success of a country. James Connolly pointed out the flaw in such an analysis when he wrote that “…prosperity such as they speak of is purely capitalistic prosperity – that is to say, prosperity gauged merely by the volume of wealth produced, and entirely ignoring the manner in which wealth is distributed amongst the workers who produce it.”

The success of the Irish economy is often described in terms of Gross National Product or Gross Domestic Product. These measures do not show how this growth in income is distributed among the population. In terms of income distribution Ireland is one of the most unequal countries in the EU and OECD and these inequalities have been worsening over the period of Partnership. Analysis of shares of income and other inequality measures show the same thing - in the mid 1990s the bottom 10 per cent of households had approximately 4 per cent of total income whereas the top 10 per cent had about 25 per cent. While this situation was bad enough, between 1994 and 1998 there was a further redistribution of income away from the poorest towards the top.

In 1987 6.2% of households were below the relative income poverty line. By 2000 this had increased to almost 12% and one third of households were below 60% of the average income.

These are the statistics of Partnership the Government does not use, this is the kind of Ireland created by Partnership and which is to be sustained for as long as this Government is in power. If a country is experiencing a time of unprecedented economic growth, as unquestioningly this state has over the last ten years, this by itself is not good enough. A careful analysis from an Irish republican perspective exposes the truth at the core of the Partnership process; that it is about maximising profit and exploiting labour. Far from delivering a more just society, this process has in fact created wider divisions than ever before in Irish society. The gap between rich and poor has become a yawning gulf. Our health and social services are in continual crisis. The quality of life has deteriorated while the cost of living has soared.

The quality of life has deteriorated. While the productivity of Irish workers has increased, their wages have not kept pace. During the 1990s output per head almost doubled, while at the same time between 1985 and 1999 the cost of labour fell by about 20 per cent. There might have been a reduction in the cost of labour, but there was no reduction in the profits made by business.

This is redistribution of wealth at its worst, wealth is being taken from the people who create it, in many cases ordinary PAYE workers, to the profiteers in the private sector. This is a point that must be driven home. The wealth of this nation is produced by workers, not by businessmen and women who take their profits, often take them out of the country. Those workers in many cases have not benefited from partnership

One supposed protection for workers has been that the Trade Union leadership, an integral part of the social partnership process, would be able to influence Government policy. We were told it would deliver rights for workers in the area of trade union recognition. Seventeen years of Social Partnership and we still have not achieved that basic minimum. Instead over the lifetime of the process we have seen anti-Union legislation being introduced in the form of the Industrial Relations Act, 1990 and the Amendment Act, 2001.

In 1996 the community and voluntary sector was included as one of the social partners. Speaking on the debate earlier, several Government deputies in particular praised this element of the Partnership process. But there is a growing feeling within that sector that their has resulted in a measure of institutionalisation into the structures of Partnership at the expense of local activities.

The Community Platform opposed, as did Sinn Féin, this latest chapter in the social partnership process, Sustaining Progress. They did state however, that while they opposed this agreement, they were still committed to the process of social partnership and wished to continue to try and work with the Government. But they received a rude awakening from the Government who booted them out of the process entirely. The Simon Community who deal with homelessness across Ireland claim that the Taoiseach misrepresented their position in the Dáil when he said they “rejected the proposals and the whole partnership process, so obviously they are out of the process.” This is simply untrue, they rejected the deal, not the process that led to the deal. But it would appear that so-called Social Partnership is now open only to those who fully endorse the Government’s position.

In their treatment, they have perhaps seen exposed again the true nature of social partnership and the cosy cartel of Government and Big Business, which gangs up on Irish workers every time a Partnership deal is negotiated. The Government, far from being a neutral player, is an ideological partner of IBEC. Partnership negotiations revolve around IBEC and the Government taking on the Trade Union leadership while the Community & Voluntary sector is ignored. And when the Community & Voluntary sector does raise its voice in opposition, it is kicked out of the process.

And what are they raising their voice in opposition to? Let us examine some of the statistics since 1987. The rate of return on capital has doubled since 1987. This is one of the statistics the Government is fond of quoting. I note they have failed to point out that this means a corresponding decline in the wage share of national income of almost 10%. By 1998 the profits share of national income had risen to 38 per cent. This is even more remarkable given that the number of people in work has risen since 1987. Internationally, Ireland experienced the largest increase in profit share among European Union (EU) members, Japan and the United States. In other words, workers have lost out, while business has profited,

And even when times are harder, as they are now, the first instinct of this most right wing of Governments is to give business a tax break with another massive reduction in Corporation tax. And in order to fund this tax break they implement savage cutbacks in community employment, public sector workers and capital investment in schools to name a few. They abandon a new promise they made before the election every day.

Social Partnership has failed Irish workers, it has failed the poor and the disadvantaged in Irish society. The legislation before us today will do little to tackle the root cause of inequality in Irish society today. It is little more than tinkering around the edges of the system when the sad truth is that under capitalism, inequality, poverty and disadvantage are inevitable, no matter what so-called Partnership agreement is in place. As Plato said, ‘There can be no partnership between the unequal.’