TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen has praised the social partners for reaching agreement in relation to pay, and told sceptical voices in the construction industry that they would ultimately benefit from the agreement.
He said the pay deal, which is worth 6 per cent over 21 months but involves an 11-month pay freeze in the public sector, "sends out the signal that we are organising our affairs in a sensible way".
He said no "explicit" commitments were made about the forthcoming budget which helped to secure the agreement of the social partners, but he added that the Government was "mindful" of the difficult context in which agreement was reached.
"We will do the best that we can, given the difficult fiscal choices that cannot be avoided," he said.
"I did emphasise that we have a difficult fiscal situation and one that the Government will have to address. They have known from the past that the deferral of dealing with these issues led to greater problems thereafter."
Mr Cowen said the construction industry will ultimately benefit from the financial and economic stability that a new partnership agreement could bring.
"Not everyone gets what they seek from an agreement, but there is a wider benefit that accrues on the basis of having an agreement which will be to the benefit of the construction industry as well."
Fine Gael deputy leader and finance spokesman Richard Bruton has said he is giving "one small cheer" for this week's agreement in the social partnership pay talks, but added that much more was needed to generate momentum for economic reform.
Speaking to reporters yesterday at the opening of the Fine Gael parliamentary party's two-day strategy conference in Co Clare, Mr Bruton said: "This pay deal is a very modest element of a reform package that needs to be delivered. We have always said that social partnership should be at the core of reform and, instead, we've seen time and again social partnership delay necessary reform such as competition on the bus services, long-promised.
"So we would like to have seen a much more robust addressing of the reform agenda that needs to happen: how we're going to take bureaucratic layers out of the public service and protect the front line as we do make savings in public spending."
Party leader Enda Kenny said: "The fact of the matter is that the problems affecting the Irish economy are far broader than the pay deal with the public service. A deal is better than none, but what we would like to see in Fine Gael is the programme for recovery by the Government to deal with the problems of the Irish economy.
"We have no indication of any plan from Government to deal with competitiveness, with keeping down costs, with increasing exports, increasing services, for which our people pay, so the pay deal in that sense is welcome but it's only a very small part of what needs to be done in respect of the Irish economy," Mr Kenny said.
Tánaiste and Minster for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Mary Coughlan said the agreement would provide the necessary strong protection for employment standards, while also providing a much-needed boost for enterprise, a degree of certainty for the business community and an excellent environment for job creation.
The agreement was also welcomed by the Labour Party spokesman on enterprise, trade and employment, Willie Penrose, who said it was inevitable that any agreement concluded against the background of current economic difficulties would be "significantly different" to those of the past.
Mr Penrose said the proposals on wage increases are probably the best that the trade union movement could have secured in the current climate, and the inclusion of a modest additional increase for the low paid was an important element of the agreement.
Sinn Féin MEP for Dublin Mary Lou McDonald described the agreement as a bad deal for low-paid workers and said a five cent hourly increase for low-paid workers was farcical.
