The talks on a successor to Partnership 2000 resumed yesterday, and the controversial issue of low-paid workers is expected to be introduced before the end of this week. The four pillars of the partnership - Government, employers, trade unions and community and voluntary - met at Government Buildings to set the agenda and to review environmental and energy issues.
It is expected that the talks covering all aspects will continue over a number of weeks. There is an unspoken target date of late January for conclusion of the talks as the finance and social welfare Bills will be drawn up in February and any agreement would need to be finalised before then.
Yesterday the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) general secretary, Mr Peter Cassells, said the issue of the low-paid was expected to come up before the end of the week, possibly when social welfare and taxation were discussed.
At the beginning of December SIPTU, the State's largest union, announced that it was withdrawing from the talks because of the way low-income groups had been treated in the Budget.
The ICTU executive and the SIPTU national executive agreed in late December to re-enter negotiations after accepting assurances from the Taoiseach that the living standards of low-paid workers would be improved in the finance and social welfare Bills.
Yesterday the SIPTU president, Mr Des Geraghty, said the union was looking for amendments to the finance Bill. Changes in the Budget were up to the politicians.
A spokeswoman for IBEC, the employers' organisation, said there had been no set date for discussing pay issues. The talks would continue for as long as it took, she said.