They have helped reduce strike rates, foster more responsible management practices, and been a major factor in attracting large scale foreign direct investment in Ireland - including many of the best and most hi-tech employers in the world.
Sure, there is also greater inequality in Ireland than in many of the more long standing wealthy European countries, and social development has certainly lagged behind. But Ireland does have one of the highest minimum wage rates in the world, one of the best (relatively) free education systems, and has invested huge sums in improving the public health system - without much actual improvement to date.
The fact that a multi-national retailer, long noted for paying slightly above the going rate, now wants to pay just the nationally negotiated minimum increases in pay - at a time of increasing unemployment and competitive pressures - is hardly remarkable or indicative of why Ireland is moving up the HDI.
I'm not sure to what degree the HDI takes income inequality into account, but there is no doubt that the very rapid rise in Ireland's GDP/capita - whilst by no means equally distributed - has certainly benefited almost all sectors of society - witness the reduction in unemployment rate from 18% in the late '80s to 4% now.
There will always be an argument between the proponents of theories of relative and absolute inequality/poverty but lets not forget that the wealth has to be produced before it can be redistributed, and Ireland's reduction of foreign debt as a % of GDP from c. 100% to c. 30% now alone means that less of a burden is being transfered from the older generation to the new. Index of Frank's Diaries
My point was that labour market conditions have changed dramatically in the past few months, and a "free market" negotiated pay rise might now be actually lower than the socially negotiated one. Hence my reference to the relatively high Irish minimum wage (c. €9/hr.)
I would have thought what was interesting about the HDI list was that it was precisely those countries with a relatively strong "social market", state economic planning, and a consensual approach to social conflict resolution that have done particularly well - with the possible exception of Australia which has now also moved in that direction. The U.S. with much more of a free market bias under the Republicans has actually moved down the list.
It seems that - contrary to some ideologists - free market and human development are not quite the same thing! Index of Frank's Diaries
It seems that - contrary to some ideologists - free market and human development are not quite the same thing!
I'm not sure I understand the point being made by the main article. The existence of national wage agreements and the existence of industrial dispute resolution processes (such as the National implementation body) have been one of the main factors behind the Celtic Tiger and Ireland's gradual rise up the HDI food chain.
