Abstract
This chapter applies the ideas of the core executive to Ireland, which celebrates a centenary of self-government in 2022. The configurations, functioning, formal and informal exchanges between actors within the Irish core executive are explored through the prism of coalition government and the contemporary challenges of managing crisis and complexity. Since 1989 coalition governments have become the norm in Ireland and have required new structures and political actors to enable parties to work together and successfully govern. Further, the dominance of issues such as COVID-19, Brexit and prior to this an economic and financial crisis, have all placed significant pressures on the capacity of a small state with limited resources. This exposes the need for upgrading how the core executive functions through facilitating both vertical and horizontal coordination across government and securing consensus at the centre. While the Taoiseach and ministers around the cabinet table remain the focal point for formal decision approval in Ireland’s core executive, a probing of ‘who does what’ and ‘with what resources’ beyond the confines of the cabinet room provides us with a fuller account of how the executive operates.
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Notes
- 1.
The author would like to thank those who participated in interviews for their helpful insights and commentary.
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Connaughton, B. (2022). Ireland’s Core Executive at One Hundred Years of Self-government: Navigating Coalition, Crisis and Complexity. In: Kolltveit, K., Shaw, R. (eds) Core Executives in a Comparative Perspective. Understanding Governance. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94503-9_5
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