Whitaker Ideas Forum: Jim O’Leary, How (Not) To Do Policy—Water Charges and Local Property Tax

There is a good deal of analytical attention paid to the effects of public policies in Ireland and to the macroeconomic context in which they are set, but there has been very little analysis of the policy-making process: how policies are conceived, designed, implemented, communicated and reviewed.

This project originated in a judgement that an attempt to address this gap would be worthwhile. Essentially, it is a forensic look-back at two recent policy initiatives – charging for water and the local property tax – from a policy-making process perspective. One of the purposes of the exercise is to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the policy-making process in Ireland with a view to suggesting how the quality of policy-making might be improved.

The seminar is in the nature of a progress report and an invitation to engage.

Bio

Jim O’Leary’s career has spanned the public and private sectors and the groves of academe. He is a former Chief Economist with Davy Stockbrokers, Senior Fellow of the Department of Economics at NUI Maynooth, and Irish Times columnist. He has worked in the ESRI and the NESC, and as an economics advisor in two government departments (An Taoiseach in 1983-84 and Finance in 2010-11). He has also served on a number of boards including Aer Lingus, AIB, Gresham Hotels, and Bank Zachodny WBK (Poland), as well as the National Statistics Board and the Public Sector Benchmarking Body.