The Irish Welfare State in the Twenty-First Century

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxv

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2. Introduction

   • Mary P. Murphy, Fiona Dukelow

   Pages 1-12

3. Welfare States: How They Change and Why

   • Fiona Dukelow, Mary P. Murphy

   Pages 13-35

4. The Irish Social Protection System: Change in Comparative Context

   • Mel Cousins

   Pages 37-65

5. Activation: Solving Unemployment or Supporting a Low-Pay Economy?

   • Micheál L. Collins, Mary P. Murphy

   Pages 67-92

6. Redistribution in the Irish Pension System: Upside Down?

   • Gerard Hughes, Michelle Maher

   Pages 93-118

7. Personal Finance: Financial Services, Access to Credit and Debt Management

   • Stuart Stamp

   Pages 119-139

8. Irish Water Services Reform: Past, Present and Future

   • Fiona Dukelow

   Pages 141-165

9. Reform of the Irish Healthcare System: What Reform?

   • Sara Burke

   Pages 167-191

10. Early Childhood Education and Care: A Neglected Policy Arena?

    • Nóirín Hayes

    Pages 193-214

11. New Managerialism: A Political Project in Irish Education

    • Bernie Grummell, Kathleen Lynch

    Pages 215-235

12. Social Housing Policy and Provision: A Changing Regime?

    • Joe Finnerty, Cathal O’Connell, Siobhan O’Sullivan

    Pages 237-259

13. Crisis and Corporate Welfare

    • Nat O’Connor, Paul Sweeney

    Pages 261-285

14. Ireland and Crisis: One Island, Two Different Experiences

    • Féilim Ó’hAdhmaill

    Pages 287-308

15. Conclusion: The Changing Irish Welfare State

    • Mary P. Murphy, Fiona Dukelow

    Pages 309-326

16. Back Matter

    Pages 327-337

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This book provides a critical and theoretically-informed assessment of the nature and types of structural change occurring in the Irish welfare state in the context of the 2008 economic crisis. Its overarching framework for conceptualising and analysing welfare state change and its political, economic and social implications is based around four crucial questions, namely what welfare is for, who delivers welfare, who pays for welfare, and who benefits.  Over the course of ten chapters, the authors examine the answers as they relate to social protection, labour market activation, pensions, finance, water, early child education and care, health, housing and corporate welfare.  They also innovatively address the impact of crisis on the welfare state in Northern Ireland. The result is to isolate key drivers of structural welfare reform, and assess how globalisation, financialisation, neo-liberalisation, privatisation, marketisation and new public management have deepened and diversified their impact on the post-crisis Irish welfare state. This in-depth analysis will appeal to sociologists, economists, political scientists and welfare state practitioners interested in the Irish welfare state and more generally in the analysis of welfare state change. 

• Social protection
• Labour market activation
• Pensions
• Finance
• Water
• Early child education and care
• Health
• Housing
• Corporate welfare
• Economic crisis
• Structural change
• Retrenchment
• Reform
• Social politics

• Department of Sociology, Maynooth University, Maynooth, Ireland

  Mary P. Murphy

• School of Applied Social Studies, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland

  Fiona Dukelow

Mary P. Murphy is Lecturer in Irish Politics and Society at Maynooth University, Ireland

Fiona Dukelow is a Lecturer in the Department of Applied Social Studies, University College Cork, Ireland