The Challenge for Government: Priorities for the Next Five Years

Throughout the world, Ireland is used as an example of a small country which, in the space of just over a decade, has been able to transform itself from an impoverished, underdeveloped economy to one with the highest growth rate and the lowest unemployment rate in the European Union. Furthermore, for the first time in decades, paramilitary violence has practically ceased on the island of Ireland and the peace process in Northern Ireland is an example to the world of conflict resolution.

However, there are worrying signs on the horizon that the Government, which took up office in June 2007, is facing into a more challenging period when it will be more difficult perhaps to steer the ship of state through the perilous seas that appear to be up ahead and ensure, in particular, that the social and economic well-being of the country and its citizens is guaranteed. The power-sharing Executive in Belfast is faced with the onerous task not only of building trust and confidence across the community divide, but also of transforming an economy that is at present far too reliant on public spending and is in urgent need of reform.

This book of essays by leading public figures in Ireland, North and South, including senior Government ministers, is a tour dhorizon of the priorities which the new Government must put high on its agenda if these challenges are to be met and overcome. It is essential reading for any student of Irish affairs or for any observer of the Irish social and economic landscape.