Routledge
Book chapter
The core argument of this chapter is that the collapse of the Irish tripartite process of social partnership can be traced to a narrowing of trade union membership to the public sector, and the social partners’ involvement in the low-tax fiscal policies of successive centre-right liberal throughout the 2000s. Since the 2008–2010 financial crisis, Irish governments have focused on parliament as the political avenue to legitimate austerity measures and new economic policy reforms. The narrowing of trade union membership to the public sector has meant that government only needs to deal with public sector unions as an employer and not as a representative social partner engaged in policy concertation.
» The Rise and Fall of Irish Social Partnership.pdf (PDF, 184.96 Kb)