THE past five years have been a challenging period for trade unions, which have come under sustained attack from some quarters despite widespread industrial peace, according to the president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu), Peter McLoone.

McLoone, a native of Ballyshannon, Co Donegal who retains a strong Northern accent, is particularly well-equipped to comment on the state of the Irish labour market, given that he is now in his 11th year as general-secretary of Impact, the country's largest public sector union.

He was also one of the key players in brokering the controversial public sector benchmarking deal, which he says has been used as "a stick to beat the union movement with" by some media commentators.

McLoone said the benchmarking scheme had been highly successful and that he couldn't understand many of the criticisms levelled at it.

"What the benchmarking process achieved was the changes that people [including the government] had demanded should be made for years. People said 'we want an end to the old pay system' . . . they got that. They said 'we want a system that gives us certainty' . . . they got that. They said 'we want a system that gives us industrial peace' . . . they got that. And they said 'we want a system that creates the conditions for modernisation', and that has been achieved."

The one area of the process which McLoone believes could be rightly criticised is the Benchmarking Body's report, which he said "didn't provide answers to all the questions that were directed at it". He said, however, this would be addressed in its next report, due to be finished at the end of this year.

McLoone feels that the biggest critics of benchmarking have been journalists, and says that those involved in the public sector at all levels were broadly happy with the deal, particularly the government.

"The last minister for finance, Charlie McCreevy, said to me that the difference that the process made to a minister on budget day was that they could get up and say with certainty what their expenditure in the public service would be going forward, " he said.

"In the past, they couldn't do that. There were intermittent disputes, particularly in the 1990s, which made any statement by a minister for finance a piece of wishful thinking, because of people's obsession with their pay and how they were comparing with someone else."

In many respects, McLoone's strong defence of benchmarking is typical of the value he places on a partnership approach to industrial relations, where the employer and the unions work together for the good of both the business and the employees.

This means that Impact generally tends to adopt a less aggressive stance in industrial disputes than other unions. This has most recently been seen at Aer Lingus, where both Impact and the state's other major union, Siptu, are involved in a dispute over cost-cutting plans.

Although both unions have balloted their members, and obtained their support, for industrial action, they have adopted different approaches to the issue.

Siptu, which represents around 1,800 staff at the airline, has adopted a hardline stance and refused to negotiate with the company unless it withdraws new contracts that it has introduced as part of its plans. Siptu looks set to take to the company to the Labour Court.

However, Impact, whose members include pilots, is continuing to negotiate with the company. McLoone said Impact's view was that "we have to engage in a dialogue with the company because we're up against a fairly tight deadline at this stage".

That said, when all other approaches fail, Impact has not . . . where necessary . . . shied away from prolonged and occasionally expensive industrial relations battles on behalf of its workers.

Its long-running struggle with Ryanair over union recognition for pilots is one of the best examples of this. At the start of this month, Impact suffered a major defeat in its campaign against the low-fares airline when the Supreme Court quashed a Labour Court ruling that it could accept jurisdiction in the dispute.

The case has now been sent back to the Labour Court for a new hearing. Ryanair looks set to pursue Impact and the Labour Court for its costs, which could be as high as 600,000.

However, McLoone said Impact had made sufficient financial provision for the setback and was determined to continue fighting for its members at the airline.

"The battle will go on. We're had a number of engagements with Ryanair in the courts . . .

this is the only one that has been unsuccessful from our point of view, " he said. "In deciding to take on the issue, we would have been aware that that could have exposed us to costs and we've equipped ourselves accordingly. You don't go into these engagements on the basis of a wing and a prayer."

Aside from the two aviation disputes, Impact's main focus at the moment is on the Health Services Executive (HSE), where almost half of its members are employed.

Earlier this month, it held a special conference on health services which gave the government three months to restore confidence in the sector.

The union will ballot its members in May unless its concerns about the government's health reform programme are resolved.

It's an area for which McLoone has a particular affinity . . . he worked as a psychiatric nurse at St Luke's hospital, Clonmel, between 1969 and 1978, before he began his career as a full-time union official.

He is acutely aware of the impact that any industrial dispute will have on the public but he said that health workers had become increasingly frustrated with the HSE, particularly as there seemed to be a lack of leadership in the organisation.

"The fact is that there hasn't been delivery on people's expectations and we're dealing with a lot of frustration. In our own union, we made an agreement with the department and the government that facilitated the establishment of the HSE. The problem we're dealing with now is that people feel this deal hasn't been delivered."

McLoone said he hoped that there would be no all-out health strikes, although he admitted he was uncertain as to how the proposed lunchtime protests by nurses outside hospitals would escalate.

Typically, however, he is pinning his hopes for resolving the disputes on what he termed "the social partnership problem-solving model", whereby talks would be held to deal with all the disputes together, rather than having each set of workers' unions agree separate deals with the HSE.

"Our own view is you can't deal with a nurses' dispute in isolation from a dispute over the consultants' contracts and, separately, from a dispute with administrative staff. The time has come to bring all of these things together and see if we can get a 'whole of health services' resolution to these problems."

He said that the proposed talks would also examine the question of how best to deliver healthcare to the public.

"There's no point just solving the industrial disputes, we need an understanding of just what's needed to be done to start to improve the issues of access and service delivery."

McLoone's two-year term as president of Ictu ends in July, but it seems certain he has no intention of simply marking time until then, and will play a key role in industrial affairs in the run-up to this year's general election.

CV PETER MCLOONE

President, Irish Congress of Trade Unions

Family: Married to Liz with three children . . . two daughters, Melanie and Trina, and one son, Damien.

Background: 2005 to the present, president of Ictu; 2000 to the present, member of Sports Council; 1996 to the present, general secretary of Impact.

Interests: Manchester United football club and watching sport at Croke Park IMPACT Ireland's largest public sector trade union 57,000 members Impact plays s considerable role in some private sector industries such as aviation