Opponents of Immigration in Ireland: A threat to the democratic public sphere?

Professor Tom Turner, Department of Work and Employment Studies, University of Limerick. Ireland is relatively unique in a European context in the absence of an established right-wing populist party with anti-immigrant policies and representation in the national parliament (the Dáil) despite having a sizeable immigrant population with a greater number of immigrants per 1000 inhabitants…

PSAI Public Policy Specialist Group Annual Workshop 2026

The PSAI Public Policy Specialist Group held its annual workshop on Friday 15 May at the National University of Ireland, Dublin, bringing together researchers from across Ireland to discuss their work on public policy and policymaking. The workshop was organised under the auspices of the PSAI’s Public Policy Specialist Group and featured three thematic panels:…

Ministerial portfolio changes adding to policy pressures

Muiris MacCarthaigh is Professor of Politics and Public Policy and Director of the Centre for Public Policy and Administration at Queen’s University Belfast. This blog draws from an article published in 2023 in Irish Political Studies titled ‘Public policy accumulation in Ireland: the changing profile of ministerial departments 1922–2022’. As another coalition government takes shape,…

Participatory and Deliberative Democracy Specialist Groups Host Conference on Cross-Border Transformations in Constitutional Politics

Dr Valesca Lima is an Assistant Professor of Politics at Dublin City University’s School of Law and Government. The PSAI and PSA Participatory and Deliberative Democracy Specialist Groups held a one-day conference on August 9th, 2024 entitled “Cross-border Transformations: Deliberation and Participation in Constitutional Politics”. Hosted at the Geary Institute at University College Dublin, the…

Irish Policy Agendas Project workshop

The Irish Policy Agendas Project held a workshop this week, bringing together researchers using and generating Irish policy agendas data, developing plans for new policy agendas projects, and studying policy agenda-setting in other ways. The workshop was supported by the PSAI’s Public Policy Specialist Group through the PSAI’s Specialist Group Funding scheme, and the NUI…

The electoral system used to elect Ireland’s MEPs

As noted here a couple of weeks ago, it’s debateable whether Ireland complies with the requirement in EU law that MEPs are to be elected using a system of proportional representation (PR), be that a list system or PR-STV. At present 25 countries use some kind of list system, while Ireland and Malta employ PR-STV.…