Abstract: The public service works to provide frontline and vital services to meet the needs of the people of Ireland. Working on behalf of the government in a diverse range of organisations, public servants play an established role in the economic and social life of this country. The public service has grown and evolved to take advantage of opportunities, address new challenges, and meet the changing needs and expectations of the people of Ireland. Since 2011, the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform, has led a dedicated programme for reform and transformation, used its role and functions to enhance governance, build capacity and delivery effectively, working with the full range of public service bodies to build a more unified and agile public service. In 2023, the department published Better Public Services, a strategy that lays out the current framework and programme of transformation up to 2030, which is delivering tangible outcomes in improved public services, living standards and infrastructure in Ireland. PubDate: Tue, 17 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: This article outlines the background to an emergent all-island movement advocating for recognition of the rights of nature – including calls for recognition of Lough Neagh’s right to participate in its community ownership – and proposes that these developments could prefigure a far-reaching transition in our regard for our island home and all its subjects, including the more-than-human. Noting the significance of the fact that prominent voices in the Irish rights of nature movement originated in the borderlands of Derry and Donegal, the paper proposes that the plight of the iconic Lough Neagh in particular presents an unprecedented opportunity for governments in Dublin, Belfast and London to address a blind spot at the heart of the Anglo–Irish ‘peace process’, that is our regard for the intrinsic rights of the land, the waters, and all the communities of species who constitute our island home to flourish. With Ireland’s celebrated eco-philosopher and mystic, John Moriarty, the emergent movement is behind the call to enfranchise the earth and everything in it. PubDate: Tue, 17 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: The publication of the Sláintecare report in May 2017 is a landmark in Irish healthcare policy. For the first time in the history of the state, the Irish political system produced an agreed long-term vision for the health system. The Irish healthcare system has attracted considerable negative comment over a long period and satisfactory healthcare reform had appeared to be impossible to achieve. The history of Irish healthcare reform is replete with policy difficulties. This paper seeks to assess the likelihood that Sláintecare will be implemented given that it is the first long-term, multielectoral cycle healthcare initiative that is agreed by all the main political parties. The paper uses a game theoretic model developed by Dal Bó, Dal Bó, and Di Tella to develop an understanding of the impact of the electoral cycle on politicians and interest groups in negotiating and implementing healthcare reform. It uses a case-study methodology, with previous Irish healthcare reform initiatives as the unit of analysis. Finally, it shows that politicians are at a distinct disadvantage due to the short-term horizon imposed on them due to the electoral cycle and that the adoption of a long-term agreed policy, like Sláintecare, is more likely to be implemented. PubDate: Tue, 17 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: Governance structures in Irish universities are undergoing a significant transformation as the passing of new legislation in October 2022, the Higher Education Authority (HEA) Act, heralded the beginning of a new relationship between the Irish state, the universities and their regulator, the HEA. This paper provides an analysis of the changes taking place in university governance with the implementation of the HEA Act and locates the current developments in the context of wider governance reforms that have taken place across European higher education. The findings of an empirical research study involving elite interviews with key stakeholders in Irish higher education governance are also presented; the results capture the early experience of implementing governance reform, with key stakeholders agreeing that smaller supervisory boards result in better governance, more rigour in the way board members approach their roles, and greater accountability required of executives, which is expected to lead to greater tension between boards and their executives. The paper concludes by identifying opportunities for further research with a follow-up study of the impact of the governance reforms on board effectiveness proposed once the new governing boards have served a full term. PubDate: Tue, 17 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: This article considers the contribution of the Department of Finance from the late 1950s to the turn of the millennium. It revisits long-standing cultural and institutional issues that former officials and academics raised in the period, particularly focusing on the budgetary system and its weaknesses. It examines the limitations of the department’s foray into economic planning, arguing that its potential was never fully realised. The article argues that plans, rather than budgets, were a far more appropriate mechanism for setting economic policy, and that they could have helped mitigate the influence of party politics. It concludes that planning will become even more paramount in the twenty-first century, as Ireland grapples with major global headwinds. PubDate: Tue, 17 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: In this article, we reconsider our 2011 book Lord of the files: Working for the government, which was the first of its kind to collect written sources from hundreds of writers inside and outside the public service on the realities and complexities of Irish public service life. Its portrayal of institutional life, state administration and the delivery of public services as they play out within the values expected of public servants aimed to provide a rounded understanding of what is conventionally known as ‘working for the government’.In the decade or more that has elapsed since publication, the context for public policy and administration in Ireland has significantly changed. We identify what we believe are important narratives arising out of momentous events that have defined recent history and which have affected how the public service carries out its duties. We frame these narratives and bring to the fore our original objectives in the anthology by reflecting on how, in recent academic discourse, storytelling is seen as important to understanding the operation and culture of organisations. We take the opportunity to present and discuss new material, and previously overlooked material, that would earn a place in an updated anthology and maintain our purpose of improving the understanding of the public service. PubDate: Tue, 17 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: Many share Michael Mulreany’s interest in the processes associated with the outward reorientation of the Irish economy from the mid-to-late 1950s through to European Economic Community accession in 1973. The Irish case is unusual by international standards in the importance accorded to the policy advice that emanated from within the civil service. While much of the historical focus has been on the Whitaker report of 1958, the contribution of which is celebrated in the 2009 work edited by Mulreany, the Department of Finance did not win all of the crucial debates on outward reorientation in which it was engaged. In particular, it had opposed the introduction in 1956 of export profits tax relief, the origin of the low corporation tax regime that remains in place to this day. This paper revisits the policy positions of the Departments of Finance and Industry and Commerce over the post-war decades and traces the foreign direct investment intensity of the modern Irish economy to the outcome of these debates. PubDate: Tue, 17 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: Over the last twenty years, the digital economy – driven primarily through large digital platforms that have been mostly unregulated to date – has brought enormous economic and societal benefits. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this trend by making digital platforms central to the global economy and society and by highlighting further opportunities, but, importantly too, risks and threats. Digital platforms, representing the increasingly important and maturing online platform economy, are now being described as critical infrastructure and even utilities. Digital platform policy, particularly the future regulation of the large far-reaching dominant platforms, is a major focus of the European Union (EU) as part of its response to the COVID-19 crisis. The literature on platform regulation highlights two major themes that emerge concerning digital platform regulation, and that are consequently the focus of future regulation: competition and online content. This article presents research findings in these areas through a critical analysis of and reflection on emerging digital platform regulatory practices which are being progressed under the groundbreaking EU Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act package. This includes assessing implications for national implementation, regulatory enforcement, and governance. A particular emphasis is placed on the Digital Services Act where there is less literature, knowledge, and experience on how to best regulate online content. In this context, the paper provides insights into how Ireland, where many of the large platforms are established and so is their de-facto regulator, is dealing with regulatory implementation issues driven by the EU. PubDate: Tue, 17 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: North/South cooperation on the island of Ireland has grown significantly in the last twenty-six years. Still, it can be argued that the delivery of that growth has happened mainly outside the formal Strand Two structures of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement with the North South Ministerial Council and its implementation bodies presently not directly involved in some of the main flagship cross-border projects in the areas of health, infrastructure, higher and further education, research, arts and culture. Instead, the Shared Island Unit, established in September 2020 and based within the Department of the Taoiseach, has been driving the delivery of the majority of projects in these areas, in many cases without direct input from the Northern Ireland Executive. This paper reviews how informal governance has been used to enhance cooperation and solve issues due to the deliberately limiting nature of the formal Strand Two institutions. PubDate: Tue, 17 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: This article is set against the background of the increasing environmental, social and governance responsibilities and obligations that have arisen for organisations, in both the private and public sectors. It focuses on two related issues. Firstly, the paper considers the development of sustainability reporting standards internationally and how the three main sets of standards are converging. It proceeds to examine the introduction of sustainability reporting in the commercial state-body sector in Ireland and highlights the need to build capacity and capability as sustainability reporting extends to other parts of the public sector. Given the importance of sustainability, the article makes the case for the inclusion of sustainability reporting in the Code of practice for the governance of state bodies. Secondly, it examines the growing use of stewardship codes internationally and the responsibilities and obligations associated with them. It proceeds to consider the case for the introduction of a stewardship code in Ireland. After examining the advantages and drawbacks of stewardship codes, it concludes that there is not a sufficient case for the introduction of such a code in Ireland. PubDate: Tue, 17 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT
Open Access journal
[389 journals]
