Inaugural Plenary Meeting to Monitor the Progress of the National Partnership Agreement “TOWARDS 2016”
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Today 15^th February, An Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern TD, An Tanaiste and The Ministry for Finance, met with the Business Pillar, Unions and other community groups in Dublin Castle for the inaugural plenary meeting to monitor the progress of the National Partnership Agreement TOWARDS 2016.

John Whelan, CEO of the IEA attended and while welcoming the progress made so far under TOWARDS 2016, he drew attention to some of the key concerns of Exporters; he stated that

”We have had a sharp loss of competitiveness in cost terms over the past two years, with energy costs increases of 44% from January ‘05 to January ‘07, and wage cost in the period 1999 to 2005 the second highest in the Euro zone. If we don’t tackle these issues urgently there will be a significant negative impact on jobs in the productive sectors, particularly in companies exporting”.

Full details of the progress to date under the “TOWARDS 2016” National Partnership agreement please click here

ENDS

For further information, please contact:

John Whelan, CEO Irish Exporters Association
Ph: 01 6424170 / Email: jfwhelan@irishexporters.ie