Abstract
This chapter considers the development and change of the Irish social protection system in a broader comparative and European context. The chapter analyses key trends in social protection systems to provide an important lens through which wider welfare state changes may be measured and understood. It provides a decomposition analysis of recent developments in social protection spending to identify the immediate impact of the Great Recession. A brief comparative assessment of contemporary Irish social protection change provides useful insight into the extent to which changes in Ireland are evident across other European countries, particularly small states, also affected by the crisis and its aftermath. Finally, the chapter considers the role of external policy actors, most notably the European Union, and the nature and extent of their impact on member states’ welfare state policy agendas at this juncture in the twenty-first century.
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- 1.
It should be noted that the average payment can be affected by changes in the number of dependants as well as by changes in relative ‘generosity’.
- 2.
There are also data issues in relation to groups such as lone parents and people with disabilities, i.e. it is difficult to identify clearly the relevant population over time.
- 3.
In all cases, unless otherwise stated, the data refers to the position on 31 December in the relevant year.
- 4.
Technically, the Economic Adjustment Programme for Ireland. At the time of writing, it is also the most recent period for which detailed data is available.
- 5.
In general, in this period the annual budgets were adopted at the end of the preceding year (so Budget 2008 was agreed in December 2007).
- 6.
Expenditure on the ECS (introduced in 2006 and abolished in 2009–2010) is included although this formed part of the Estimates of another Department rather than DSP. The ECS was ‘replaced’ by the Early Childhood Care and Education Scheme which is not included here as it is not a social protection scheme. See Chap. 9.
- 7.
The Programme for Government, 2011–2016 states that the government will ‘maintain social welfare rates’ and this appears to have been interpreted (by government) as applying to ‘core’ rates. However, as an indication of the lack of any coherent policy in this area, following cuts in the rate of CB in Budgets 2010–2013, it was partially increased again in Budget 2015 (October 2014).
- 8.
The study found little change in the poverty reduction efficiency of social transfers. The poverty reduction efficiency of social transfers refers to the proportion of social transfers that contribute to reducing the market income poverty gap.
- 9.
SOCX presents public and private benefits with a social purpose grouped along the following policy areas: old age, survivors, incapacity-related benefits, health, family, active labour market programmes, unemployment, housing and other social policy areas. SOCX includes public spending on early childhood education and care up to age six, but SOCX does not include public spending on education beyond that age. At the time of writing, the EU Eurostat database includes data up to 2012 only.
- 10.
This is based on gross expenditure. The OECD has calculated net social expenditure, i.e. taking into account taxes and some elements of private social expenditure (Adema et al. 2011). However, this is only available at present up to 2011. Although in some countries this has a major effect on levels of spending (e.g. in the USA net social expenditure is much higher than gross, whereas in Scandinavian countries the reverse is the case), it does not significantly alter Ireland’s ranking.
- 11.
Some academic commentators apparently share the media view: Casey et al. (2013) state that ‘Ireland’s social benefits … had already risen substantially prior to the downturn and were at a relatively high level in 2008.’ SOCX indicates that in 2008 Ireland’s social protection expenditure (at 19.5 % of GDP) was below the OECD average and lower than any other EU country except the Czech and Slovak Republics and Estonia.
- 12.
The peak year for Ireland and the UK (and the OECD average) was 2009, whereas Greek expenditure peaked in 2012 and that of Italy and Spain in 2013. This pattern is consistent with Ireland having commenced its fiscal consolidation relatively early (2008) compared to the other countries where efforts began in 2009 in Portugal, and in 2010 in the case of Greece and Spain (Weymes 2012).
- 13.
For a discussion of the impact of the Great Recession on southern welfare states, see the special edition of the European Journal of Social Security, 17:2, 2015.
- 14.
And of course, like national governments, different EU institutions have somewhat different views on social protection policies.
- 15.
On a more minor issue, the introduction of a system of ‘profiling’ unemployed claimants had been under consideration by DSP for about a decade (see Barrett et al. 2001).
- 16.
Indeed, the change had already been made in the Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2011. This issue was discussed extensively in the Green Paper on Pensions (Government of Ireland 2007) and as part of the extensive consultation process on the Green Paper.
- 17.
A later MoU (28 April 2011) provided that ‘the nominal value of Social Welfare pensions will not be increased’ but this was hardly on the agenda in any case.
- 18.
Letter of Intent from the Minister for Finance and Governor of the Central Bank to EU/IMF (3 December 2010).
- 19.
Irish Times, 15 November 2011; Sunday Business Post, 20 February 2012.
- 20.
A fourth report, submitted to the Minister for Social Protection in July 2014, remains unpublished at the time of writing.
- 21.
Again, we have little idea as to the practical impact of the greater impact on activation in the absence of an evaluation culture in Irish public policy.
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Cousins, M. (2016). The Irish Social Protection System: Change in Comparative Context. In: Murphy, M., Dukelow, F. (eds) The Irish Welfare State in the Twenty-First Century. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57138-0_3
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