Policy Briefs

The economic rationale frequently cited for local government territorial reforms and municipal amalgamations is the economies of scale argument. It is argued that in the subnational public sector sphere larger councils may exhibit scale economies, and provide services at a lower per unit cost than smaller councils. As against the ‘small is beautiful’ argument that… | Read on »

Every day, at every meal, people across Ireland are reliant on a global network of actors to produce, process and distribute the food that they consume. But the dominant system of industrialized food provisioning is unsustainable both from a socio-economic and an environmental perspective. The additional demands that will be made on the food system… | Read on »

In line with the Immunisation Guidelines for Ireland from the National Immunisation Advisory Committee, the HSE recommend that all healthcare workers (HCW) in health services receive the seasonal influenza vaccination each year. Compared to adults working in non-healthcare settings, HCWs are at significantly higher risk of influenza. Achieving a high uptake of influenza vaccination among… | Read on »

Intergenerational family farm transfer is a complex and highly topical issue. Joint farming ventures (JFVs), including arrangements such as farm partnerships, share farming and contract rearing, have been advocated within Irish farm transfer policy discourses as succession models that can enable young farmers to become formal partners in the family farm business. They also allow… | Read on »

Information and communications technology and the development of the so-called ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) provide new and valuable affordances to businesses and consumers. The use of sensors, software, and interconnectivity (marketed as ‘smartness’) provide digital devices with useful adaptive capabilities. The rapid development of so-called ‘smart devices’ means that many everyday items are now impenetrable… | Read on »

The Irish Government’s Harnessing Our Ocean Wealth Strategy sets out a roadmap for integrated actions across policy, governance and business to enable our marine potential to be realised (Inter–Departmental Marine Coordination Group, 2012). Specifically, Action 29 aims to embed knowledge and consider options for the inclusion of marine studies in the secondary school curriculum. Research from… | Read on »

The Galway Statement on Atlantic Ocean Cooperation (2013) reinforces a need for Ocean Literacy across Europe, the United States, and Canada. In Galway in 2013, top marine scientists concluded that together we have the capacity to understand and predict major Atlantic and Arctic processes, as well as the changes and risks they carry in relation… | Read on »

In this research, concepts from bounded rationality theory were applied to develop an integrated model to explain how pension plan structure and pension communication policies impact on employee pension participation within organisations. Bounded rationality theory provided a useful frame of reference to understand the challenges that employees face in making complicated pension decisions, made over… | Read on »

At the 2015 G-7 Leaders’ Declaration Summit, G-7 leaders acknowledged that ‘marine litter, in particular plastic litter, poses a global challenge, directly affecting marine and coastal life and ecosystems and potentially also human health’. With this in mind, research from Sea Change—a Horizon 2020 project—engaged in European dialogue with marine governance actors. A modelling approach… | Read on »

As part of the European Union (EU)’s Blue growth Strategy to create sustainable growth and employment in the marine economy, aquaculture has been identified as a sector with high growth potential. In Ireland, the Strategic Plan for Sustainable Aquaculture Development (NSPSAD) sets out a target of achieving production levels, for all aquaculture sub-sectors, at or… | Read on »