The Gazette 1967/71

Government and approved by the executive coun cil of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. An employer-employee body and a prices and incomes committee are to be set up very soon to implement it. The policy would cover all incomes—farmers' incomes, professional earnings, rents, profits and realised capital gains, as well as wages and salaries—and arrange surveillance to see that price increases would be limited to the justified mini mum. One of its objectives would be to improve the position of lower-paid workers, including, pre sumably, the great majority of women workers. A basic objective is to curb inflation. The N.I.E.C. stated bluntly and unanimously that if inflation was not curbed, even the existing level of employment could not be maintained and that it was utterly unrealistic to aspire towards full employment. It warned that we would be faced with serious social tension and unrest. General guide-lines for increases in money incomes are to be given by the N.I.E.C. and criteria are to be laid down for divergences from them. The new employer-employee body would translate them into practical negotiating terms. The Government has invited the I.C.T.U. and the Irish Employers' Confederation to join with it in a statement of commitment to the principles of the report and to discuss the immediate estab lishment of the new body. It will strengthen the Labour Court, the prices section of the Depart ment of Industry and Commerce and the Fair Trade Commission. All three and the Departments of Finance and Labour are to be represented on the incomes and prices committee, and there are to be six non-official members appointed by the Government. Government statement A statement for the Government Information Bureau said that there was now a wider recognition that income increases on the scale secured during the current national round of increases had raised serious social and economic problems for the community. It was essential that the economy be given time to absorb those settlements and that arrangements be made to ensure that future increases did not endanger the national economy. The changes 15

loss. The delay in completing professional business may be due to unavoidable circumstances affecting the client or the complexity of difficulty of the business. Government Departments, where business log-jams are becoming more serious from year to year are a large contributory factor in delay. Lastly, the solicitor himself may be in efficient and if he is he cannot complain. Never theless the one certain act is that delays do occur and that they are in a very large measure due to circumstances which are beyond the control of the solicitor or the client. Examples of delay at the present time in Government Departments are the Land Registry where transactions may take twelve months or more to complete and the Estate Duty Office which is seriously understaffed with resulting arrears and delay. This suggests the following considerations: 1. Long term credit is becoming less and less acceptable in commercial transactions and business generally. 2. Solicitors in preparing bills of costs where there has been no unreasonable delay on their part should be entitled to take into consideration the change in the value of money and the loss of interest on the fees for work carried out for a long time previous to payment. 3. Changes of this kind cannot be effective without authority from the rule-making bodies but it would be reasonable in con nection with negotiations over cost that these considerations should be taken into account. ERIC A. PLUNKETT N.I.E.C. URGES POLICY FOR ALL INCOMES Proposals to be implemented by employer-worker body A plan for a prices and incomes policy proposed by the National Industrial Economic Council depends on voluntary co-operation by the Govern ment, employers and workers. No statutary controls are proposed. The council's report is welcomed by the