ICTU general secretary David Begg says social partnership has to be re-engineered to catch up with Europe in terms of social development.
Addressing the Leinster Society of Chartered Accountants, he said that over the past 15 years the unions had made a bargain with employers and government to achieve economic growth and full employment, even though it unfairly benefited business.
He described the economic transformation of Ireland as an 'incomplete circle', pointing to problems in health, housing, childcare and inequality.
Mr Begg also said he was not persuaded that wages were the cause of high services inflation. He said he suspected that services inflation was mainly caused by greed.
On the public finances, he said it had not been satisfactorily explained how we managed to turn a _4 billion surplus into a deficit.
Mr Begg also called for a more realistic perspective on the link between taxation and public services. 'We cannot continue to believe that we can simultaneously lower taxes and improve public services,' he said.
He said the extent to which the accounting professional facilitated scandals at home and abroad should be of serious concern to accountants' bodies, urging them to support the recommendations of the Review Group on Auditing, which are due to be enacted in legislation later this year.
