Journal articles on the topic 'Welfare state – Ireland'
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1
Powell, Fred, and John Ditch. "Northern Ireland: A Welfare State?" Irish Review (1986-), no. 7 (1989): 146. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/29735500.
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Cinnéide, Séamus Ó. "Ireland and the European Welfare State." Policy & Politics 21, no. 2 (April 1, 1993): 97–108. http://dx.doi.org/10.1332/030557393782453862.
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CORRIGAN, OWEN. "Migrants, Welfare Systems and Social Citizenship in Ireland and Britain: Users or Abusers?" Journal of Social Policy 39, no. 3 (November 26, 2009): 415–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0047279409990468.
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AbstractPublic discourse on migrant interactions with state welfare systems has often assumed exploitative motivations on the part of migrants, with charges of welfare tourism a recurring theme among segments of the political spectrum. Academic research has also tended to characterise migrant welfare utilisation in simple dichotomous terms where migrants are either ‘welfare dependent’ or not. This article argues for the analytic utility of disaggregating the concept of welfare utilisation into distinct component parts, denoting usage, participation and dependency with regard to state-provided cash welfare benefits. Using EU survey data, these distinct components of welfare utilisation among migrants are assessed in comparative cross-national context, comparing welfare and labour market outcomes for similar cohorts of migrants faced with dissimilar incentive structures. The results have direct implications for policy-makers, and for migrant experiences of social citizenship, in so far as they show little support for the moral hazard view of migrant interactions with welfare systems. Migrants in Ireland's relatively more generous welfare system are seen to have no greater likelihood of welfare dependency, and in fact show a lower usage of welfare (as a proportion of total income) than similar migrants in Britain, controlling for characteristics. Intriguingly, however, the likelihood of forming a partial labour market attachment is seen to respond to increasing levels of welfare usage in Ireland, but not in Britain, suggesting that migrants may be taking an active role in how they define their position in the work-welfare nexus in response to welfare system incentives.
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Artner, Annamária. "Cycles of nationalisation and privatisation, and the role of the state in Ireland." Acta Oeconomica 67, no. 4 (December 2017): 557–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.1556/032.2017.67.4.4.
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The article examines how the roles of state institutions and state owned enterprises have been changed in Ireland since its independence, with special regard to the role of state ownership and crisis management. The history of planning and social partnership, the courses of nationalisation and privatisation and the problem of damaging the state are discussed as well. The author concludes that the crisis has not resulted in the strengthening of the developmental or welfare role of the state, the evolution of a “developmental welfare state” has become less likely in Ireland in the course of crisis management. Another lesson is that the state can manage certain bad assets of the private sector in a way that yields a profit to the public. There are other costs of the crisis management, however, which are to be paid by the people and result in a decrease of state ownership and a shrinking of the welfare systems.
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McEnhill, Libby. "Book Review: Britain and Ireland: Gender Equality in the Welfare State?" Political Studies Review 11, no. 3 (August 7, 2013): 444–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1478-9302.12028_88.
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Mering, Tomasz. "Polityka społeczna w Szkocji po reformie dewolucyjnej. W stronę fragmentaryzacji brytyjskiego welfare state?" Przegląd Europejski, no. 2-2021 (September 8, 2021): 129–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.31338/1641-2478pe.2.21.8.
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The article presents the origins and evolution of social policy programmes in Scotland since the referendum in 1997. Regional authorities in Scotland obtained significant prerogatives in payment of social benefits. They actively exercised the rights granted by the UK legislation, resulting in the partial decentralisation of the social security system in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has become a fact. This decentralisation is not complete, because the administration of pensions, and unemployment benefits remains the sole responsibility of London’s central government. One of the features of British social policy has become territorial asymmetry, consisting of partially different programs and social policy institutions in other parts of the UK. The most important effect of the reforms is the creation of institutions and draft social policy programs that can be put into effect, when the process of political emancipation in Scotland will lead to a new regional referendum.
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TIMONEN, VIRPI, and MARTHA DOYLE. "In Search of Security: Migrant Workers' Understandings, Experiences and Expectations Regarding ‘Social Protection’ in Ireland." Journal of Social Policy 38, no. 1 (January 2009): 157–75. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0047279408002602.
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AbstractWhile both migration and welfare states are popular topics of research, the intersection between them is rarely studied. In this article, we present the findings of a study that explored migrant workers' conceptualisation of ‘social protection’ and their relationship with the Irish welfare state. The main foci of analysis for the purposes of this article are the migrant workers' understandings, experiences and expectations regarding their social protection and the welfare state. While our findings hint at the presence of many migrant workers who are very poorly anchored into and even completely detached from the Irish welfare state, they also reveal complex and ambivalent attitudes towards component parts of the social protection system. While the findings presented here stem from a qualitative study in a single country, we hypothesise that similar patterns can be identified among the migrant populations in other, particularly liberal, welfare states.
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Rowland, Marie, Neil Hudson, Melanie Connor, Cathy Dwyer, and Tamsin Coombs. "The Welfare of Traveller and Gypsy Owned Horses in the UK and Ireland." Animals 12, no. 18 (September 13, 2022): 2402. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani12182402.
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Travellers and Gypsies are recognised ethnic groups in the UK and Ireland. Horse ownership is an important cultural tradition, however, practices associated with poor welfare are often perceived to be linked to these horse owning communities. Despite this, empirical studies on the welfare status of Traveller and Gypsy owned horses are lacking. To determine the welfare status of Traveller and Gypsy owned horses, 104 horses were assessed using a bespoke horse welfare protocol. This protocol assessed animal, resource and management-based measures. In addition, Qualitative Behaviour Assessment (QBA) identified horses’ emotional state. Results indicated that 81% of horses had an optimal body condition score, with no horse recorded as very thin/fat. The absence of limb conditions (95%), ocular (98%) and nasal (93%) discharges were evident in most horses, and 81% of horses responded positively to the voluntary animal approach test. The most commonly observed welfare issues were hoof neglect (27%), with hoof cracks/breakages (19%) being the most prevalent. QBA indicated that positive emotional states were more commonplace than negative. A relationship between QBA and other horse welfare measures was observed, e.g., improved mood was associated with better water availability. This research provides novel data in the under-researched area of the welfare of Traveller and Gypsy owned horses and counters perceptions of a poor welfare state in this group of horses.
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Murphy, Mary. "What future lies ahead for the Irish welfare state?" Volume 2 Issue 1 (2010) 2, no. 1 (January 1, 2010): 22–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.33178/ijpp.2.1.2.
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Beginning by outlining the pre-recession aspirations for an active Irish social policy, the article then examines the recent political economy of social policy and the cumulative impact of the National Asset Management Agency, the Report of the Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programmes (McCarthy, 2009), the Commission on Taxation (Government of Ireland, 2009) and Budget 2010 on unemployment, social expenditure, poverty and inequality. Assuming a Developmental Welfare State is still the aspiration of Irish social policy, it explores three different models of activation; flexicurity, mutual obligations and active inclusion for all. Arguing for a flexicurity model strengthened by incorporating principles from Active Inclusion for All (EAPN, 2008) that promote a less punitive approach to activation; the article ends by considering how to gender the life cycle approach and concludes strong political leadership is required to move in this direction.
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Kaehne, Axel. "Book Review: Britain and Ireland: The Withering of the Welfare State: Regression." Political Studies Review 11, no. 3 (August 7, 2013): 425–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1478-9302.12028_56.
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Privilege, John. "The Northern Ireland government and the welfare state, 1942–8: the case of health provision." Irish Historical Studies 39, no. 155 (May 2015): 439–59. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/ihs.2014.2.
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Abstract Northern Ireland, the United Kingdom’s only self-governing region, recorded year-on- year the worst statistics on health and poverty. However, it was far from certain that the Unionist government in Belfast would enact the kind of sweeping post-war reform that occurred in England and Wales. The raft of legislation governing health and social care introduced in 1948 was, therefore, the product of conditions and circumstances peculiar to Northern Ireland. The government in Belfast needed to overcome the conservative instincts of Ulster Unionism as well as suspicions regarding Clement Attlee’s Labour administration. Although the process was somewhat blighted by sectarianism, the government of Sir Basil Brooke enacted what amounted to a revolution in health and social care provision.
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Mooney, Gerry, and Sharon Wright. "Introduction: Social Policy in the Devolved Scotland: Towards a Scottish Welfare State?" Social Policy and Society 8, no. 3 (July 2009): 361–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s147474640900493x.
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Ten years have passed since devolution was implemented for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This anniversary is worthy of note for all scholars of UK social welfare, not just those with a specialist interest in political reform or the ‘Celtic’ nations, because reflection on the first decade of devolution inspires a rethink of some of the basic working assumptions of social policy analysis (see below, also Mooney et al., 2006), for example the extent to which the notion of a UK welfare state remains meaningful (cf. McEwen and Parry, 2005). This themed section provides an opportunity to consider the impact of devolution on broader understandings of polity, policy and practice as well as pointing to further possible divergences in and across the UK. These are explored in relation to key areas of social welfare intervention in Scotland, focussing particularly on poverty, inequality and social justice; immigration and the experiences of labour migrants in rural areas; the use of private finance; key literature and useful sources.
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McCashin, Anthony. "Social security expenditures in Ireland, 1981–2007: an analysis of welfare state change." Policy & Politics 40, no. 4 (October 1, 2012): 547–67. http://dx.doi.org/10.1332/030557312x645784.
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Pembroke, Sinéad. "Foucault and Industrial Schools in Ireland: Subtly Disciplining or Dominating through Brutality?" Sociology 53, no. 2 (April 6, 2018): 385–400. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0038038518763490.
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Industrial Schools run by Catholic Religious Orders in Ireland were a form of institutionalised child-welfare that incarcerated children in need for most of the 20th century. During the last decade, Industrial Schools were one of the most controversial elements of Ireland’s recent history; the abuse scandal associated with such places has led to a state apology, the setting up of an inquiry and redress process, with its final report (the Ryan Report), published in 2009. Although a fast growing literature exists on Industrial Schools, they do not analyse the precise nature of the regime inside these institutions. This article contributes to understandings of Foucault by looking at the regime and practices imposed on children incarcerated in Industrial Schools in Ireland in the 20th century, and exploring why they were used. Twenty-five interviews were conducted with male and female Industrial School survivors and analysed using a grounded theory approach.
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O'Kelly, Ciarán. "Being Irish." Government and Opposition 39, no. 3 (2004): 504–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1477-7053.2004.00132.x.
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AbstractThis article is one of a series commissioned by Government and Opposition exploring identity politics in several national and international contexts. Though ostensibly a civic republic, Ireland has been shaped by a certain conception of Irish culture. Cultural claims are typically political but have the potential to allow community interests to override concern for individual well-being. The construction of the Irish state focused on the maintenance of an idea of being Irish rather than on the welfare of people throughout Ireland, both North and South. As a result, a conservative formulation of Irish identity was locked into the state's structures.
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Acheson, Nicholas, Brian Harvey, and Arthur Williamson. "State Welfare and the Development of Voluntary Action: The Case of Ireland, North and South." VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations 16, no. 2 (June 2005): 181–202. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11266-005-5697-1.
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Collins, Micheál L. "Private Pensions and the Gender Distribution of Fiscal Welfare." Social Policy and Society 19, no. 3 (March 17, 2020): 500–516. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1474746420000111.
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The provision of taxation relief to support pension savings has become a large and expensive aspect of the welfare state in many countries. Among OECD member states this exceeds $200 billion in revenue forgone each year. Previous research has consistently found this fiscal welfare to have pronounced regressive distributive outcomes. However, little is known about the gendered impact of these fiscal welfare supports, a void this article addresses. Using data for Ireland the article finds that the current structure of fiscal welfare supports notably favours males over females. Nominal contribution levels are higher among males, and males are more likely to be active contributors to pension savings. The associated tax supports are consequently skewed, with two-thirds received by men and one-third by women. This outcome suggests a continuation of the gender earnings gap into retirement and a discontinuity between longevity expectations and tax policy supports for pension provision.
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Kwiek, Marek. "The University and the State in a Global Age: Renegotiating the Traditional Social Contract?" European Educational Research Journal 4, no. 4 (December 2005): 324–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.2304/eerj.2005.4.4.1.
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This article is based on the Keynote Address to the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER), Dublin, Ireland, 7–10 September 2005. It argues that we are facing the simultaneous renegotiation of the major post-war social contract (concerning the welfare state) in Europe and the renegotiation of a smaller-scale modern social pact: the pact between the university and the nation-state. It suggests that the current, and especially future, transformations of the university are not fully clear outside of the context of transformations to the state (and to the public sector) under global pressures. These pressures, both directly and indirectly, will not leave the university as an institution unaffected. Thus it is more useful today than ever before to discuss the future of the university in the context of the current transformations of the state. The study is divided into four sections: a brief introduction; a section on the university and the welfare state in Europe; a section on the university and the nation-state in Europe; and tentative conclusions.
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McCabe, Ciarán. "‘The Going Out of the Voluntary and the Coming in of the Compulsory’: The Impact of the 1838 Irish Poor Law on Voluntary Charitable Societies in Dublin City." Irish Economic and Social History 45, no. 1 (August 14, 2018): 47–69. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0332489318790981.
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The introduction of the workhouse-centred Poor Law system into Ireland on the eve of the Great Famine transformed the provision of poor assistance in the country. Throughout various urban centres, the plethora of charitable societies that had been prominent in the provision of corporate assistance to the poor faced an increasingly uncertain future, fearing that the levying of compulsory poor rates would result in a withdrawal of support from subscribers and donors. This article analyses the impact of the Poor Law system on charitable societies in Dublin city, covering the fifteen-year period between the 1830 Select Committee on the State of the Poor in Ireland to the eve of the Great Famine in 1845. The article outlines how the establishment of the statutory Poor Law system resulted in confusion among the managers of existing welfare institutions and demonstrates that the opening of Poor Law Union workhouses greatly affected charitable societies’ pauper lists and income levels; yet the impact on the many charities that dotted Dublin’s crowded welfare landscape was not uniform.
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Kilgannon, David. "The death of Veronica L.: intellectual disability and statutory welfare in mid twentieth-century Ireland." Irish Historical Studies 45, no. 167 (May 2021): 81–100. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/ihs.2021.24.
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AbstractVeronica L., a woman with an intellectual disability, died of starvation in 1961 while the recipient of a Disabled Person's Maintenance Allowance (D.P.M.A.) from the Dublin Health Authority. Her death occured after a prolonged period of deficient care, a neglect that was exacerbated by flaws in statutory welfare. During the preceding decade the state intervened in disability provision to an unprecedented degree through the expansion of institutional care and social welfare reform. Yet, these services remained characterised by a chronic pressure on resources and a reluctance to intervene in potentially neglectful family situations, which allowed cases of failing care to go unaddressed. Drawing on contemporary documents, in particular the depositions collected for the coroner's court inquest into Veronica's death, this article offers an insight into the exigencies underlying the later life of one woman with an intellectual disability. In doing so, it explores the way in which this singular case provides a distinctive avenue for better understanding the experiences of the intellectually disabled more broadly, including the nature of community care and the operation of statutory welfare during the mid twentieth century.
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Fitzpatrick, Ciara. "Book review: Continuity and Change in the Welfare State: Social Security in the Republic of Ireland." European Journal of Social Security 22, no. 3 (September 2020): 361–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1388262720945402.
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Murphy, Enda, and Julien Mercille. "(Re)making labour markets and economic crises: The case of Ireland." Economic and Labour Relations Review 30, no. 1 (February 21, 2019): 22–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1035304619829015.
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The 2008 economic crisis has had significant impacts on labour markets around the world. In Europe, in particular, the need for internal devaluation within European Union nations in financial difficulty precipitated a wave of labour market reforms alongside the reform of welfare systems struggling to cope with high levels of unemployment. Various analyses have explored the nature of these changes separately for the labour market and welfare systems. Using a conceptual framework rooted in a political economy understanding the social nature of labour, this article takes an inclusive approach to understanding regulatory changes for both employed and unemployed labour. We do this using the case of Ireland, a country that went through a severe economic crisis, was subject to a European Union/European Central Bank/International Monetary Fund bailout in 2010 and witnessed one of the most significant labour market crises in Europe. The Irish case is instructive because it highlights both the range and depth of regulatory interventions utilised by the state during periods of crisis to deal with the social nature of labour and its role under advanced capitalism. JEL codes: J01, J08, J48.
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O`Keeffe, Brendan. "Regional and Local Devolution in Ireland – the Potential of LEADER Partnerships to Provide Municipal Government." Lex localis - Journal of Local Self-Government 7, no. 3 (October 14, 2009): 257–69. http://dx.doi.org/10.4335/86.
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Emerging economic and social challenges prompted EU and national authorities to initiate and support localised or area-based partnership approaches to development. Such approaches involve enabling representatives from the state sector, social partners, community and voluntary groups to form collaborative partnership structures with competences in integrated local development in a defined geographical area. In terms of local development in Ireland, the most significant partnership structures that have emerged are LEADER Local Action Groups and Local Development Partnerships. Extensive studies of partnership processes, outputs and limitations in Ireland and throughout the EU reveal a number of limitations in the current degree of synergy between partnership and mainstream approaches. Emerging development approaches to the provision of social welfare and public services increasingly involve new forms of public-voluntary and public-private partnerships.
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Gray, Peter. "IRISH SOCIAL THOUGHT AND THE RELIEF OF POVERTY, 1847–1880." Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 20 (November 5, 2010): 141–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0080440110000095.
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ABSTRACTThis paper investigates the way in which the ‘problem of poverty’ in Ireland was encountered, constructed and debated by members of the Irish intellectual and political elite in the decades between the Great Famine and the outbreak of the land war in the late 1870s. This period witnessed acute social upheavals in Ireland, from the catastrophic nadir of the Famine, through the much-vaunted economic recovery of the 1850s–1860s, to the near-famine panic of the late 1870s (itself prefigured by a lesser agricultural crisis in 1859–63). The paper focuses on how a particular elite group – the ‘Dublin School’ of political economists and their circle, and most prominently William Neilson Hancock and John Kells Ingram – sought to define and investigate the changing ‘problem’, shape public attitudes towards the legitimacy of welfare interventions and lobby state officials in the making of poor law policy in this period. It suggests that the crisis of 1859–63 played a disproportionate role in the reevaluation of Irish poor relief and in promoting a campaign for an ‘anglicisation’ of poor law measures and practice in Ireland.
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LYNCH, JULIA. "The Age-Orientation of Social Policy Regimes in OECD Countries." Journal of Social Policy 30, no. 3 (July 2001): 411–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0047279401006365.
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This article presents a series of measures of the extent to which social policies in twenty-one OECD countries are oriented towards the support of elderly (over 65 or in formal retirement) and non-elderly (under 65 and not retired) population groups. Employing breakdowns by age in spending on social insurance, education and health, tax expenditures on welfare substituting goods, and housing policy outcomes, this article shows that countries tend to demonstrate a consistent age-orientation across a variety of policy areas and instruments. After correcting for the demographic structure of the population, Greece, Japan, Italy, Spain and the United States have the most elderly-oriented social policy regimes, while the Netherlands, Ireland, Canada and the Nordic countries have a more age-neutral repertoire of social policies. In identifying the age-orientation of social policy as a dimension of distributive politics that is not captured by other welfare state typologies, this article suggests the need to develop new accounts of the development of welfare states that include the dimension of age.
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Walsh, Dermot. "Raising the age of criminal responsibility in the Republic of Ireland: a legacy of vested interests and political expediency." Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly 67, no. 3 (September 1, 2016): 373–86. http://dx.doi.org/10.53386/nilq.v67i3.124.
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Throughout much of its history, juvenile justice in the Republic of Ireland has been oriented towards a justice as distinct from a welfare model. In the twenty-first century this was heavily amended pursuant to a justice agenda that emphasised criminalisation and punishment for offenders as young as 10 years of age. The treatment of the age of criminal responsibility has been an integral part of this trajectory. Raising the age of criminal responsibility from the common law low of 7 years in the Republic of Ireland has proved a surprisingly difficult endeavour. This article examines why the age of criminal responsibility in the Republic of Ireland was maintained at the common law age of 7 years, why there should have been such dithering over the reform when it eventually did come, and why the current law still criminalises children of a very young age. It argues that answers to these questions can be found in a volatile combination of religious values and interests, economic and social constraints, public intolerance of childhood offending, a lack of principled political leadership at the heart of the state, and the relative neglect of expert knowledge from the behavioural and neuro-sciences.
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Atkins, Sarah. "Poverty, Race and Vulnerability." International Journal of Children’s Rights 23, no. 2 (June 9, 2015): 425–76. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15718182-02302005.
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Rather than providing for the welfare needs of asylum-seekers in Ireland within the existing social welfare structure, the Irish State operates the Direct Provision System. This system provides full board in accommodation centres and a small weekly allowance. The problems with this “temporary” system are manifold, and though these issues are individually problematic in their own right, they are compounded by the fact that it has been known for an asylum application to take seven years or more to reach completion. The Irish State is thus arguably in breach of both international (uncrc) and regional (echr and eu) obligations, as well as their domestic best practice guidelines. This article argues that the intolerability of inadequate long-term living conditions and enforced poverty is undeniable. The effect of poverty and social exclusion, in particular on asylum-seeker children, is highly detrimental and cultivates vulnerability on many levels. Methodologies I use in this article are doctrinal analysis of the relevant instruments and case law as well as engaging in a socio-legal reading of reports and literature in the area, and using this to inform my understanding of the issues. I conclude that such treatment of already vulnerable individuals by the State is manifestly discriminatory and feeds into a discriminatory culture of xenophobia. Political and media discourse engaging in such terminology as “welfare tourism” further exacerbates the issue by creating a marginalised concept the “other” amongst us.
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Das, Chaitali, Martin O’Neill, and John Pinkerton. "Re-engaging with community work as a method of practice in social work: A view from Northern Ireland." Journal of Social Work 18, no. 4 (June 1, 2016): 375–93. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1468017316652117.
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Summary This article investigates community work as a method in social work in Northern Ireland. It traces the processes that have led to the marginalisation of community work within social work practices and the complex relationship between community development and social work. Nonetheless, the welfare state is undergoing change, wherein new agendas of personalisation, service user involvement, community engagement and partnership are emerging, which are changing the occupational space of social work. We argue that this change can be an opportunity through which social work can and must re-engage with community development, particularly within the existing political arrangements and sectarian context of Northern Ireland. However, social work’s engagement in the community presents risks given its current relationship with the state and loss of trust within the Northern Irish community. We discuss these risks and further possibilities. Findings The article draws from contemporary literature on the current context of community development and service provision in Northern Ireland social work’s involvement. The possibilities for community social work are explored through recent policy initiatives and the current situation of the community sector. Risks that stem from social work’s relationship with the state, and with community organisations as well as the contradiction between discourses of partnership in service delivery and the ground reality are considered. Applications Our analysis suggests the need for (a) collective action by social workers through collective representation, (b) a new conceptualisation of professionalism that incorporates partnerships with other workers in the care sector and (c) education that has contemporary resonance.
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Kılınç, Ramazan, and Carolyn M. Warner. "Micro-Foundations of Religion and Public Goods Provision: Belief, Belonging, and Giving in Catholicism and Islam." Politics and Religion 8, no. 4 (November 25, 2015): 718–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1755048315000747.
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AbstractWhile debates continue about the relationship between state-provided social welfare and religious charities, and whether organized religions are more capable of providing social welfare than is the public sector, less attention has focused on the question of what motivates religious adherents to contribute to the charitable work of their religions. In this article, we examine how adherents of Catholicism and Islam understand their generosity and its relationship to their faith. Through 218 semi-structured interviews with Catholics and Muslims in four cities in France, Ireland, Italy, and Turkey, we find systematic differences between the two religions. Catholics emphasize love of others and Muslims emphasize duty to God. We also find, contrary to expectations of the literature that emphasizes monitoring and sanctioning within groups to obtain cooperation, that Catholics and Muslims see their generosity as also motivated by the positive affect they feel towards their respective communities.
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POWER, ANDREW. "Spatial Perspectives on Voluntarism in Learning Disability Services in Ireland." Journal of Social Policy 38, no. 2 (April 2009): 299–315. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0047279408002857.
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AbstractVoluntarism has moved to the centre of most western neo-liberal governments' focus in terms of welfare delivery. At the same time, very little of the social policy literature has identified specific historical, cultural and political contexts of place in shaping the particular form of voluntarism and the scale at which it takes place in a country. In order to address policy-related issues of the voluntary sector, a geographical perspective focusing on these local contexts can be very useful in unpacking how the sector can exist across regional and local scales. This article explores the rise of voluntarism in adult learning disability services in Ireland. Ireland experienced the ‘community turn’ much earlier than most Western states, in that the state advocated a ‘hands-off’ approach in learning disability services from the outset. It uses data from 40 interviews with local health agencies, voluntary organisations and informal carers. It critically examines the complex geographical factors that have contributed to the particular form of voluntarism that has evolved, thus demonstrating that understanding levels of voluntary activity requires attention to local circumstances.
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Murphy, Caroline, and Michelle O’Sullivan. "Running to stand still? Two decades of trade union activity in the Irish long-term care sector." Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research 27, no. 3 (July 15, 2021): 383–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10242589211028461.
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This article examines the ongoing efforts of trade unions in Ireland to protect and improve the working conditions of personal care workers amid employment and social policy regimes associated with a liberal welfare state. Comparatively low public expenditure on care and the increasing marketisation of care services have undermined the provision of decent work. This article assesses two major union campaigns related to personal care workers over two decades, and reviews the key priorities that have emerged for unions during the COVID-19 pandemic. We consider whether the outcomes of these campaigns have been converted into enhanced rewards for workers and discuss the continuing challenges for union campaigning.
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Pogátsa, Z. "Tatra Tiger growth miracle or belated recovery?" Acta Oeconomica 59, no. 4 (December 1, 2009): 377–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.1556/aoecon.59.2009.4.1.
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The article agues that the much heralded Tatra Tiger phenomenon in Slovakia is much less of a miraculous growth and catch up story akin to the Asian Tigers or Ireland, and much more of a late economic recovery based on a radical opening to FDI and the reduction of the Slovak welfare state. It attempts to demonstrate how the low rate flat tax system had much less influence on this success story, and how the average Slovak citizen benefited less from it than it is usually assumed. It also aims to raise concerns about the sustainability of this model, as well as its applicability in other economies of the region.
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Hayden, Aideen, Paddy Gray, Ursula McAnulty, and Bob Jordan. "The Private Rented Sectors in the North and South of Ireland: A Case Study in Convergence Analysis." Journal of Economic Development, Environment and People 4, no. 3 (September 30, 2015): 45. http://dx.doi.org/10.26458/jedep.v4i3.117.
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The theme of this paper centres on the convergence and divergence of housing policy between two regimes inhabiting the same geographical space on the island of Ireland, as reflected in the development of the private rented sector (PRS) in both jurisdictions. Using a historical comparative analysis of key indicators, this paper aims not just to present an accurate picture of the state of policy towards the sector in both jurisdictions today, but to place this analysis within a framework which looks at the backdrop of overall housing systems. The paper postulates that while Northern Ireland and the South of Ireland are reflective of the Anglo Saxon tradition in housing, major historical differences in their pathways have brought clearly identifiable policy outcomes indicative of their differing status in comparative welfare analysis. While both jurisdictions have diverged significantly during the course of the twentieth century in the profile of policy and housing tenure mix, showing examples of path dependency at work, there is clear evidence of more recent convergence. More recent changes in housing policy in both jurisdictions away from direct social housing provision and the changing role of the private rented sector are also examined and a convergence theory is proposed.
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Dukelow, Fiona, and Patricia Kennett. "Discipline, debt and coercive commodification: Post-crisis neoliberalism and the welfare state in Ireland, the UK and the USA." Critical Social Policy 38, no. 3 (March 10, 2018): 482–504. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0261018318762727.
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Ireland, the UK and the USA are heterogeneous examples of liberal worlds of welfare capitalism yet all three countries were deeply implicated in the 2008 global financial crisis. Examining these three countries together provides the opportunity to further develop an international comparative political economy of instability in the context of the globalised and financialised dimensions of Anglo-liberal capitalism and disciplinary governance. Our analysis is guided by the concept of disciplinary neoliberalism (Gill, 1995) through which we explore: (i) the dynamics that have shaped the impacts of and responses to the Great Recession; (ii) the ways in which state-market relations, shaped by differentiated accommodations to market imperative or market discipline, have been used as disciplinary tools and how these have interacted with existing social divisions and iii) the implications for shaping conditions for resistance. We suggest that the neoliberal pathways of each country, whilst not uniform, mark a ‘step-change’ and acceleration in the operation of disciplinary neoliberalism, and is particularly evident in what we identify as the coercive commodification of social policy.
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Bywaters, Paul, Jonathan Scourfield, Chantel Jones, Tim Sparks, Martin Elliott, Jade Hooper, Claire McCartan, Marina Shapira, Lisa Bunting, and Brigid Daniel. "Child welfare inequalities in the four nations of the UK." Journal of Social Work 20, no. 2 (September 11, 2018): 193–215. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1468017318793479.
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Comparative international data on patterns of inequality in child welfare interventions, for example, the proportion of children about whom there are substantiated child protection concerns or who are in out-of-home care, are far less developed than data about inequalities in health. Few countries collect reliable, comprehensive information and definitions, methods of data collection and analysis are rarely consistent. The four UK countries (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales) provide a potential ‘natural experiment’ for comparing intervention patterns. This study reports on a large quantitative, descriptive study focusing on children in contact with children’s services on a single date in 2015. It found that children’s chances of receiving a child protection intervention were related to family socio-economic circumstances, measured by neighbourhood deprivation, within all four countries. There was a strong social gradient which was significantly steeper in some countries than others. Ethnicity was another important factor underlying inequalities. While inequalities in patterns of intervention between the four countries were considerable, they did not mirror relative levels of deprivation in the child population. Inequalities in intervention rates result from a combination of demand and supply factors. The level and extent of inequity raise profound ethical, economic and practical challenges to those involved in child protection, the wider society and the state.
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O'Connor, Julia S. "Welfare state development in the context of European integration and economic convergence: situating Ireland within the European Union context." Policy & Politics 31, no. 3 (July 1, 2003): 387–404. http://dx.doi.org/10.1332/030557303322035018.
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BUTLER, SHANE. "Obstacles to the Implementation of an Integrated National Alcohol Policy in Ireland: Nannies, Neo-Liberals and Joined-Up Government." Journal of Social Policy 38, no. 2 (April 2009): 343–59. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0047279408002870.
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AbstractThis article explores how proponents of a public health model of alcohol policy have, for more than a quarter of a century, argued consistently but unsuccessfully for an integrated national alcohol policy in the Republic of Ireland. It looks in particular at the past decade, a time when increases in alcohol consumption and related problems strengthened the case for such an integrated policy, and when managerial innovations in the sphere of cross-cutting management appeared to provide a template for its implementation. A number of explanations are offered for the refusal of successive governments to respond to what its advocates see as the only rational, evidence-based approach to the prevention of alcohol problems. It is argued that, unlike the Nordic countries, the political culture of independent Ireland has never been one in which the state could unilaterally impose strict alcohol control policies as a feature of its broader vision of the welfare state. It is also argued that during the recent period of economic prosperity (the so-called ‘Celtic Tiger’ era) the country was characterised by a neo-liberal policy climate, which was specifically antipathetic to the idea that the state should interfere directly in the alcohol market with a view to preventing related problems. It is suggested that the social partnership model of governance, to which many people attributed the country's economic success, created an atmosphere of consensualism within which the state as mediator between the two main protagonists (the public health lobby and the drinks industry) was unwilling to challenge the drinks industry. It is also concluded that this failure to create a national alcohol policy based on public health principles demonstrates the limitations of the cross-cutting, or ‘joined-up’, approach to public management in those areas of social policy characterised by clashing value systems or fundamental conflicts of economic interest. Finally, it is acknowledged that in Ireland, as elsewhere, neo-liberal certitudes have been effectively dethroned by the economic recession and banking crisis of late 2008; whether these more straitened economic circumstances will provide a better fit for the ‘nanny state’ ideals of the public health perspective on alcohol remains to be seen.
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Huh, Taewook, Yunyoung Kim, and Jiyoung Kim. "Towards a Green State: A Comparative Study on OECD Countries through Fuzzy-Set Analysis." Sustainability 10, no. 9 (September 5, 2018): 3181. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su10093181.
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This study aims to develop an empirical measurement framework of the green state and compare twenty-four OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries’ cases through the fuzzy-set multiple conjunctural analysis and the ideal type analysis. Based on the analysis model of the outcome set (Sustainable Development Goal Index) and the causal sets of seven variables on the four green state categories (‘ecological authoritarian state’, ‘ecological modern state’, ‘ecological democracy state’, and ‘ecological welfare state’), this study reveals the following results. Among OECD member countries, if ones have high environmental tax, high environmental innovation (patent), high economic development and democracy, high levels of environmental governance and social expenditure, or have high economic development and democracy, and high levels of environmental governance and environmental health, they can be seen to have reached a high level of green state (consistency: 0.980, total coverage: 0.675). Also, the thirteen ideal types of green state of twenty-four OECD countries were derived. Norway (fuzzy-set membership score of 0.515) is a country of Type 1, with a characteristic of ‘strong green state’ having all high features of the four green state categories. Greece (membership score, 0.692) and Ireland (0.577) belong to Type 13, characterized by ‘weak green state’ with all four low features. As a result, the green state types of the twenty-four OECD countries can be assorted into five levels: ‘Strong Green State’, ‘Quasi-Strong Green State’, ‘Quasi-Green State’, ‘Quasi-Weak Green State’, and ‘Weak Green State’.
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Lucey, Donnacha Seán. "‘These Schemes Will Win for Themselves the Confidence of the People’: Irish Independence, Poor Law Reform and Hospital Provision." Medical History 58, no. 1 (December 16, 2013): 46–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/mdh.2013.71.
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AbstractThis article examines hospital provision in Ireland during the early twentieth century. It examines attempts by the newly independent Irish Free State to reform and de-stigmatise medical relief in former workhouse infirmaries. Such reforms were designed to move away from nineteenth century welfare regimes which were underpinned by principles of deterrence. The reform initiated in independent Ireland – the first attempted break-up of the New Poor Law in Great Britain or Ireland – was partly successful. Many of the newly named County and District Hospitals provided solely for medical cases and managed to dissociate such health care provision from the relief of poverty. However, some hospitals continued to act as multifunctional institutions and provided for various categories including the sick, the aged and infirm, ‘unmarried mothers’ and ‘harmless lunatics’. Such institutions often remained associated with the relief of poverty. This article also examines patient fee-payment and outlines how fresh terms of entitlement and means-testing were established. Such developments were even more pronounced in voluntary hospitals where the majority of patients made a financial contribution to their treatment. The article argues that the ability to pay at times determined the type of provision, either voluntary or rate-aided, available to the sick. However, it concludes that the clinical condition of patients often determined whether they entered a more prestigious voluntary hospital or the former workhouse. Although this article concentrates on two Irish case studies, County Kerry and Cork City; it is conceptualised within wider developments with particular reference to the British context.
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Krings, Torben, Alicja Bobek, Elaine Moriarty, Justyna Salamonska, and James Wickham. "Migration and Recession: Polish Migrants in Post-Celtic Tiger Ireland." Sociological Research Online 14, no. 2 (March 2009): 111–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.5153/sro.1927.
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In this paper we explore the impact of the current economic downturn on Polish migrants in the Irish labour market. Ireland appears to be well suited to study the impact of the recession on intra-European migration. The country has not only experienced large-scale inward migration from the new EU Member states (NMS) in recent years, but has also been severely hit by a recession. At times of an economic crisis, questions have begun to be asked about the future intentions of migrants. By drawing on an ongoing Qualitative Panel Study on the experience of Polish migrants in the Irish labour market, we argue that simplistic assumptions about migrants leaving the country ‘when times are getting tough’ are misplaced. No doubt some NMS migrants will leave because of the worsening economic situation and new opportunities elsewhere. As East-West migration has adopted a more temporary and circular character facilitated by a free movement regime, NMS migrants have the opportunity to move on elsewhere at times of a downturn. At the same time, many Polish migrants are ‘here to stay’, for the moment at least. This is for at least three reasons. A clear majority of NMS migrants remains in employment, in spite of the downturn. Furthermore, even if migrants should lose their jobs, welfare state arrangements in the host country offer some protection against destitution. Moreover, the decision to migrate, and consequently to stay or move on, is not just reached on the basis of economic considerations alone. Particularly social networks are of importance in sustaining the migration process relatively independent from short-term economic change, including an economic downturn.
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Van Til, Jon. "From Liberal Democracy to the Cosmopolitan Canopy." Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal 7, no. 1 (March 19, 2015): 35–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ccs.v7i1.4303.
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Liberalism is that ideology, that worldview, which values, in an ever-evolving set of intelligently intermingled thoughts: democracy, freedom (liberty), equality (justice), fraternity (solidarity), the pursuit of happiness, pluralism (diversity), and human rights--and explores the ever-open ever-possible futures of their rediscovery and advance. The study of ways in which social movements relate to Third sector/nonprofit or voluntary organizations can be structured, if we choose, as a liberal endeavor. That is the message I receive from Antonin Wagner’s (2012) telling of the emergence of a field that focuses its study and developmental energies on place of intermediate associational life in modern society, from Adalbert Evers’ efforts to sustain the welfare state in an era of untrammeled capitalism (2013), and from Roger Lohmann’s (1992) comprehensive vision of a social commons capable of assuring the values of liberal society.This paper sets the theory of liberal democracy in a contemporary cosmopolitan context, drawing on case material from Hungary, Northern Ireland, and the United States.
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Harrison, Bridget. "Factory and workshop legislation and convent laundries, 1895–1907: campaigning for a Catholic exception." Irish Historical Studies 45, no. 168 (November 2021): 223–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/ihs.2021.53.
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AbstractConvents and convent-run institutions occupied an undefined legal space during the late nineteenth century. As homes for unmarried women, they combined religious ideas of holy seclusion with contemporary ideas of the feminine private sphere. However, women religious were also major providers of charity and welfare in Britain and Ireland, with many running charitable institutions. This brought them in closer contact with the state. As factory and workshop legislation towards the end of the nineteenth century expanded to include laundries, Catholic politicians used this ambiguous societal role to argue that Magdalene asylums deserved less inspection than for-profit laundries. In so doing, they both re-enforced nuns’ right to domestic privacy and promoted their operations as a social good. This created a legal exemption for convent-run laundries, which allowed them to operate with limited scrutiny or interference. An examination of the debates surrounding factory and workshop legislation from 1895 to 1907 exposes a precedent which continued well into the twentieth century.
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Benedetti, Ilaria, Gianni Betti, and Federico Crescenzi. "Measuring Child Poverty and Its Uncertainty: A Case Study of 33 European Countries." Sustainability 12, no. 19 (October 5, 2020): 8204. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12198204.
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Over the last few years, there has been increased interest in compiling poverty indicators for children, as well as in providing uncertainty measures that are associated with point estimates. In this paper, we provide point, variance, and interval confidence estimates of the at-risk-of-poverty rate indicator for 33 European countries. Using the 2018 EU-SILC survey, we analysed the spatial distribution of poverty by providing graphical representations at the national level. Our results reveal rates of child poverty that are higher than in the national estimates for most of the countries. By considering the computation of standard errors, we used the bootstrap method thanks to its convenient properties. It is worth noting that, for some countries, such as Finland, Belgium, and Ireland, the confidence intervals do not overlap. These results suggest differences among countries not only in terms of child poverty, but also in terms of social protection and the welfare state.
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EMON, AYESHAH, and Virpi Timonen. "Graduate attributes: Social constructions and lived experience of university students in Ireland." Journal of Education Culture and Society 10, no. 2 (September 2, 2019): 133–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.15503/jecs20192.133.147.
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Aim. This paper examines how dominant understandings of students in third-level education in Ireland are reflected in national policies, filtered through the official and aspirational texts issued by Irish colleges, and negotiated and contested by students. Specifically, we investigate the discrepancies between the perceived needs of students in third-level education as imagined in government policies and promoted by higher education institutions, and the lived realities of students who grapple with multiple challenges brought about by structural failures in housing and higher education funding policy.
Methods. Through documentary analysis and primary qualitative data on student experiences, we examine how the imagined figure of the third-level student/graduate becomes imbued with the aspirations of multiple stakeholders: policymakers, academic institutions, and potential employers - in ways that conflict with the lived realities of students.
Results. We find that students are caught between the ambitions and expectations of an education system that pushes them into higher education without the requisite and adequate supports.
Conclusion. The ideal graduate is expected to embody the nation’s hope for future success as well as to uphold the alma mater’s reputation among employers. Couched in this rhetoric of the graduate as the beacon of hope, however, are deeper failings of a welfare state that is still battling the aftermath of recession. These failures are projected onto students, manifesting in a very real way in their minds and lives as they struggle to balance between institutional, family and personal expectations, the demands of daily life and future plans.
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POWELL, FRED. "Anthony McCashin (2019), Continuity and Change in the Welfare State: Social Security in the Republic of Ireland, £59.99, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 282, hbk." Journal of Social Policy 49, no. 4 (August 18, 2020): 881–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s004727942000046x.
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Breathnach, Ciara. "The cruelty man: child welfare, the NSPCC and the state in Ireland, 1899–1956. By Sarah Anne Buckley. Pp 225, illus. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013. £75." Irish Historical Studies 39, no. 154 (November 2014): 354–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0021121400019295.
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Lagerqvist, Maja. "My Goodness, My Heritage! Constructing Good Heritage in the Irish Economic Crisis." Culture Unbound 7, no. 2 (June 11, 2015): 285–306. http://dx.doi.org/10.3384/cu.2000.1525.1572285.
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In 2008, the Republic of Ireland entered a severe financial crisis partly as a part of the global economic crisis. Since then, it has seen large raises in income taxes and cuts in state spending on health, welfare, education and on heritage, which has suffered relatively large cuts. This implies a need for rethinking choices and prioritisations to cope with the changing circumstances. Across Europe, the effects of the crisis on heritage, or the whole cultural sector, have yet mostly been highlighted in general or supposed terms rather than empirically analysed. But what actually happens to how heritage is conceptualised in times of crisis? Inspired by Critical Discourse Analysis, this paper explores representation of and argumentation for heritage in Irish state heritage policies pre and post the recession 2008. Much concerns regarding heritage management are discursively shaped. Policies, stating the authorised viewpoint, are thus key in the construction of heritage and its values in society. Recently, research has highlighted a shift towards more instrumentality in cultural policy due to wider societal changes. A crisis could influence such development. The analysis departs from an often-stated notion of heritage as a part of the Irish national recovery, but what does that imply? Focus is therefore put on how different representations of heritage and its values are present, argued for and compete in a situation with increasing competition regarding relevance and support. The paper shows how heritage matters are refocused, streamlined and packaged as productive, good-for-all, unproblematic and decomplexified in order to be perceived and valued as part of the national recovery. This includes privileging certain instrumental values, foremost economic, by means of specificity, space and quantification, while heritage’s contribution to social life, education or health, although often mentioned, are downplayed by being expressed in much more vague terms.
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O'Gorman, Roderic. "The Irish “Bail-Out” and Cuts to Social Protection Spending— the Case for a Right to a Subsistence Minimum in EU Law." German Law Journal 15, no. 4 (July 1, 2014): 569–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s2071832200019052.
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As part of the 2010 EU/IMF economic adjustment program or “bail-out,” the Irish Government was required to undertake billions of euros in cuts to social protection spending over a three-year period. These have been implemented in subsequent budgets, resulting in increased levels of poverty and social exclusion. In light of these impacts on social rights in Ireland and other Member States, this article argues that the outcome of such Union legislative measures should be subject to some degree of rights-based scrutiny. It examines how, in theHartz IVdecision, the German Constitutional Court ruled that an attempt by the German Government to pass legislation that significantly cut a range of social welfare benefits breached the fundamental right to a subsistence minimum under the German Basic Law. Drawing inspiration from the approach of the German Constitutional Court, the article argues that the two elements of the German Basic Law which grounded that decision—the right to human dignity (Article 1(1)) and the social state principle (Article 20(1))—are both present within the Union Treaties as a result of changes occasioned by the Lisbon Treaty. The article advocates that the European Court of Justice should discover such a right within Union law and use it as a tool to analyze the impact of future cuts mandated by Union institutions on the economically disadvantaged.
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Samoilova, Olha. "The process of British integration with European Union." Міжнародні відносини, суспільні комунікації та регіональні студії, no. 2 (May 29, 2017): 161–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.29038/2524-2679-2017-02-161-170.
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The relations with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland are of the great importance for the European Union as well as for the United Kingdom, since the latter is dependent on the EU policies to some extent. As British nation has formally started the process of leaving the organization, it is important to investigate the process that led to the current state of affairs. To understand the current problem between sides, the history and process of establishing the relations should be studied. The problems appearing throughout the time still remain unresolved and prove the mutual interdependence and importance of their addressing for both the United Kingdom and the European Union. The article researches the main stages of British integration with the EU and their influence on the international relations within the European community. Since the first failed application to join the EEC in 1961 and later accession in 1973, the UK managed to occupy the leading position in the European Community with a number of beneficial rights. However, within the state the European integration provoked conflicts, i.e. between those who believe that Britain's future lies with Europe and those who believe it does not. In 1980-s the UK politicians stressed that the state paid a lot more into the EC budget than other members due to its relative lack of farms. The situation was worsened by J. Delors’ policy towards a more federal Europe and a single currency. T. Blair’s government was more European in its outlook than its predecessor, as he actively advocated the expansion of the European Union. However, Blair’s desire to get closer with the US dissatisfied Europeans. In 2011 D. Cameron became the first UK prime minister to veto a EU treaty. After winning reelection in May 2015, D. Cameron started the process of renegotiating the UK-EU relationship, putting on the list such issues as changes in migrant welfare payments, financial safeguards and easier ways for Britain to block EU regulations. On 23 June 2016 UK voters, inspired by Cameron, elected to withdraw from the European Union. The consequences of Brexit caused serious challenges the UK has to overcome in the nearest future.
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HEAVEY, PATRICK. "The Irish Healthcare System: A Morality Tale." Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 28, no. 02 (April 2019): 276–302. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0963180119000100.
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Abstract:A country’s healthcare system—the protection and healing of some its weakest people, its sick and injured—could be considered to be one of the most definitive expressions of its national morality. In recent decades, Ireland has experienced profound cultural changes; from a mostly monocultural and religious society to a multi-ethnic one, where secular ideas predominate. Economically, it is largely neoliberal, with one of the world’s most open economies, and one of its lowest corporate tax rates; though there is also a welfare state. Its healthcare system has reflected these cultural changes. The system has evolved, gradually, from being run almost exclusively by religious groups, to becoming essentially secular in nature (though religious groups are still involved at the ownership level). Overall, the system is run according to the two competing secular ideologies which currently predominate; it is a two-tier system, with a mix of a neoliberally oriented (though government subsidized) private system, and a public system. The latter has been starved of resources in recent decades; so to achieve good, or at times adequate healthcare, it is almost essential to have private health insurance (which about half of the population have).This two-tier system has led to significant concerns and occasional scandals; for example, patients dying while on waiting lists for public treatment, who could have been treated and possibly saved if they had health insurance. A purely ethical approach to healthcare—with the aim of healing the sick—has been mixed with competing motives, such as the desire for profit in the private sector, or for short term savings and box-ticking in the public system. Thus, good healthcare practice and best moral practice are being undermined by competing agendas.In this article, I describe and reflect ethically on the Irish healthcare system, and how it has evolved to its current state. I also discuss how dysfunction in the healthcare system, leading to the death of a pregnant woman, Savita Halappanavar, was a major factor in a constitutional ban on abortion being overturned.