Documents

This paper is one of a series of papers being published by NESC this year on the shared island. It traces the evolution of the two economies, north and south, on the island of Ireland. It describes similarities and differences in the structure of the economies and the connections between them. Despite differences in the economies on the island, the expansion of cross-border trade and the increased interconnections of business on the island mean that to some extent an island economy has been developed

In June 2020, the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) Secretariat was asked by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER) to undertake research to address the following question: What are the policy options available to facilitate the delivery of public and private housing in line with the compact growth targets set out in the National Planning Framework (NPF) and related policies in a new Programme for Government?

City resilience is seen as a city capability to recover from large events, such as natural hazards, and to positively manage ongoing city “stressors,” such as the climate crisis, demographic change, social inequality, unemployment, and poverty. While the term ‘resilient city’ has its origins in dealing with natural disasters, its use now extends to a number of independent but interacting resilient domains, such as social resilience; economic resilience; community capital; institutional resilience; infrastructure resilience; and environmental resilience.

This paper outlines data on a number of gender impacts of Covid-19 in Ireland in 2020. It describes the outcomes from the pandemic for women and men in the areas of employment, domestic work and childcare, finance and state income supports, well-being, health and decision-making. It also outlines ways in which some groups experience overlapping negative impacts.

The Government of Ireland, as with all governments across Europe, faces a triple challenge of recovery from the economic crisis brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the urgent need for action on climate change and ensuring a just transition to a zero-carbon society so that opportunities and burdens are equally distributed. This paper asks whether it is possible to align the recovery from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the necessity to take climate action with innovative local wealth building approaches, to catalyse enhanced local sustainable development, in particular in rural communities. The public health crisis has exposed shortcomings in local economies across Ireland, with rural communities impacted hardest by the economic impacts of the crisis , while the importance of active citizenship to the national response has underscored importance of resilient communities.