FDI Oppose A Return To Social Partnership

FDI Oppose A Return To Social Partnership :

The spectre of a return to the days of Social Partnership as a way to “manage” the Irish economy, is upon us once more.  Rumours that Fianna Fail want to return to this model if they complete coalition government arrangements with Fine Gael in the coming weeks.

We in Free Democrats Ireland are strongly opposed to such a return.  We believe that the Irish economy or society doesn’t need to be “managed” by a cartel of special interests making crony deals behind closed doors.  The record of the two decades of social partnership in Ireland was mixed, initially in 1987, it helped stabilise and unite employers and unions to take difficult decisions and was one of many elements that helped the Irish economy achieve growth during this period.  However in the late 90s and 00s the process gave unprecedented power to trade unions, especially those from the public sector which led to wage and welfare hikes, a massive expansion of government and the rise of a “spend it, while we have it” economic policy.   We in FDI also believe that Social Partnership is undemocratic, as it basically side steps the Oireachtas in setting policies, it picks ‘winners and losers’ in a cronyistic manner and it ultimately would be used by unions as a way to drive wages up, with  no expected increase in productivity and improved efficiency from workers or industries and by big business interests to protect themselves from competition.

FDI believe in allowing the free market to dictate wages, through the simple laws of supply and demand and the natural development of society unencumbered by central management of government, behind closed doors making crony deals with various stakeholders. Ultimately Social Partnership looks after the needs of big business and big unions and does so with a short term mindset and this in the longer term ends up costing us all.