ICTU president and Fórsa general secretary Kevin Callinan led the trade union delegation at Monday’s meeting of the Labour Employer Economic Forum (LEEF), the first meeting of its kind to take place since September’s Budget.

The LEEF meets approximately four times a year and brings together senior Government, trade union and employer representatives to discuss economic, employment and labour market issues.

The parties met on Monday as reports emerged that corporate tax receipts for the year are now likely to surpass the Department of Finance’s own forecasts, and hit a record €23 billion for 2022.

The LEEF was chaired on Monday by outgoing Taoiseach Micheál Martin. Tánaiste Leo Varadkar was also present, while transport Minister Eamon Ryan acknowledged that union representations at the September meeting of the LEEF had a significant influence on the Government’s budgetary approach this year.

Kevin said the meeting provided an opportunity to press the case for deepening social dialogue: “Looking ahead to 2023, it’s clear that there will be considerable challenges.

“Unions and employers have separately made the case for deeper social dialogue indeed a new social compact, in order to better equip ourselves for the challenges the country is facing.

“Not least of these is the continuing housing crisis, which is having a tangible, and very destructive, knock-on effect on recruitment in education, health and across the private sector.

“We also face added pressures on health services, we need to respond effectively on climate measures, and there’s continuing uncertainty because of the situation in Ukraine.

“We made the case to the Government this week that those challenges demand a shared idea of what policies are necessary to meet them, and that closer cooperation would lead to more successful outcomes,” he said.

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