Social partnership

The community platform made up of 28 organisations committed to fighting poverty and inequality have agreed that the next social partnership agreement must be judged on four key tests. "Social partnership is meaningless unless the most marginalised in society are given a voice and unless the outcomes of social partnership results in real outcomes for them", said Sean Regan from the Community Workers Co-op. The community platform tests highlight how despite being one of the richest countries in the EU, Ireland also remains the most unequal. The four tests for the social partnership agreement are:

1.Will it deliver on the Government's long-standing promise to eradicate poverty and reduce inequality?

2.Will it advance the right to decent and appropriate employment, services and supports for all people and communities?

3.Have existing Government targets for reducing poverty and inequality, including those in previous partnership agreements, been met or are there clear steps to meeting these laid out in the new agreement?

4.Will it advance democracy, meaningful participation and access to rights, especially for the most marginalised?

The community platform wants to ensure that the next social partnership agreement is responding to the needs of disadvantaged communities in Ireland. The community platform made a collective decision to not endorse the previous social partnership agreement 'Sustaining Progress' because it offered nothing additional to existing policy commitments to address the problems faced by people who experience poverty, social exclusion and inequality. Since then Government has excluded community platform members who did not sign up to 'Sustaining Progress' and have stopped them from participating in many key partnership meetings and agreements.

? More www.cwc.ie, www.cori.ie