ABSTRACT
There is a growing realisation in Ireland of the need to actively involve the social partners in the quest for an adequate response to the problem of social exclusion. This has resulted in the development of the policy of social consensus or partnership which underlies key government programmes for economic and social progress since 1987 and has come to be recognised, in the words of the Chairperson of the National Economic and Social Forum, Maureen Gaffney, as a ‘model of social partnership which is the wonder of Europe’ (she was speaking during a recent television discussion on the need to work to end social exclusion).
