Damian F. Hannan

Understanding contemporary Ireland : state, class and development in the Republic of Ireland

Preface - Introduction: The Transformation of Irelands Social Structure - The Evolution and Structure of the Irish State - The Transformation of the Class Structure: Occupations, Opportunities and Occupants - The State and the Distribution and Redistribution of Income - State, Class and Family - Education: The Promise of Reform and the Growth of Credentialism - Employment, Unemployment and Industrial Policy - Industrial Relations and the State - Agriculture: Policy and Politics - The Ebbing Tide - References - Index

Education: the Promise of Reform and the Growth of Credentialism

Two related concerns — equality of educational opportunity and the link between education and the labour demands of a modern capitalist economy — lay at the root of many of the major changes brought about in public education by Western governments during the post-war period. These changes have led to a rapid expansion of both the provision and the utilisation of public education, with a concomitant growth in educational expenditure.1

The Evolution and Structure of the Irish State

The structure of the Irish State and its development after Independence bear the marks of the post-colonial, semi-peripheral experience. Certainly nationalism and economic vulnerability were influential in shaping the role of the State. Of these influences, nationalism was perhaps dominant, as it often directed State policies down paths which economic interest did not justify. Irish nationalism however, was untypically an agent of stability rather than upheaval. Though the new nation drifted immediately into civil war, the split in the nationalist movement served in practice to shore up constitutional democracy, so that by 1926 the early ‘crisis of legitimacy’ was permanently resolved (Pyne, 1969, p. 50). Such an initial foundation of stability is rare in post-colonial societies and made continuity rather than change the defining characteristic of independent Ireland in its early decades.

Industrial Relations and the State

The shift away from a residual State role in industrial relations was a direct response to the problems created by the industrialisation strategy pursued in Ireland. Free trade and the heavy reliance on attracting foreign investment made it imperative to maintain stable industrial relations and wage competitiveness (Hardiman, 1986; Roche 1982; Stanton, 1979) and in these respects, the traditional role of the State in industrial relations could no longer suffice. The new State role in the 1960s brought the Government, trade union and employer representatives together in a variety of bodies established to facilitate the programme of economic development. The next decade brought another role for the State; as a ‘partner’ to a series of National Wage Agreements. It was that extension of the State’s role that ultimately blurred the boundary between the economic and the political in Ireland. Industrial policy, industrial relations, wages and taxes all entered the political arena — and remained there, despite the gradual dissolution of tripartite arrangements.

Agriculture: Policy and Politics

The publication of the Programme for Economic Expansion in 1958 does not stand as a watershed for Irish agriculture in the way that it does for much of the rest of the Irish economy and society. Rather, the post-1958 period has seen the continuation of several important long-term trends in Irish farming while, at the same time, a number of developments in the 1960s and 1970s — and, crucially, entry to the EC in 1973 — have both accelerated these trends and set new ones in motion. In this chapter our central concern is to examine the link between State policy and the polarisation of Irish agriculture into two sectors: one made up of a small number of viable and, in some cases, prosperous farms, the other of very many marginalised small farms. Our secondary aim is to look at how the development of agriculture has led to a new relationship between the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors of Irish society. In both these respects we shall concentrate on the recent past, but setting such events in context will first require that we view Irish agriculture in a longer term perspective.

The State and the Distribution and Redistribution of Income

The opportunities for white collar and skilled manual work fostered by economic growth were far more secure, well-paid and satisfying than those which change had displaced. Prosperity brought an improved standard of living to the fortunate occupants of positions in the State bureaucracy, manufacturing industry and the services. At the same time, the zeal with which politicians and the public embraced the idea of a Welfare State ensured that those excluded from direct market participation also experienced a substantial rise in their real incomes and thus their standard of living. This chapter scrutinises the distribution of the various forms of income available in Ireland over the 1970s and 1980s, focusing on the role of the State in channelling that distribution throughout the class structure. Giddens (1973, p. 149) argues that ‘what appears to be generic to capitalism is a stable disparity between the economic returns accruing to the major classes’. We begin our examination of class income differentials by noting some factors that potentially limit the applicability of Giddens’s generalisation to the recent Irish experience.

Employment, Unemployment and Industrial Policy

Since the founding of the State, Ireland has been unable to create jobs on a scale sufficient to meet the requirements of its potential growth in population. The consequences of such failure have been high levels of unemployment among the employee labour force and high rates of emigration. In this chapter our purpose is to examine the way in which the Irish State has sought to address the employment problem, particularly in the post-1958 period — through industrial, public sector and manpower policy — and the resulting consequences. Of particular concern to us, of course, are the questions of how these policies have influenced the class structure of Irish society, and the degree to which the particular strategies pursued reflect the autonomy and capacity possessed by the State in this area. We begin, however, with a discussion of the current unemployment situation and an attempt to outline the dynamics of the Irish employment problem.

State, Class and Family

In word at least, Irish State policy has been least ambiguous in the area of the family. The content of that policy until the 1970s, however, was mainly defined by the Catholic Church, not the State. A series of constitutional and legislative provisions ignored, by and large, the viewpoints of minority religions and meticulously implemented the values of conservative Catholic social thinking, within which the family is the basic unit of society (Whyte, 1980, pp. 26–66). Church and State harmony on the role of the family provided the foundation for the extraordinarily stable and conservative society that prevailed from 1922 until the 1960s. It legitimised and supported both the distinctive kinship and demographic patterns characteristic of a class structure based on the ownership of family property and the substantial class inequalities present in that society.

The Transformation of the Class Structure: Occupations, Opportunities and Occupants

In the span of 25 years, Ireland’s class structure shifted from one based on family property to one based on educational credentials. Opportunities for self-employment as labourers — agricultural and non-agricultural — contracted; massive growth occurred in professional and technical employment and in skilled manual labour. The broad outline of the resulting transformation is familiar, experienced by most core and semi-peripheral societies. It is our contention however, that Ireland produced an important variation on that theme and that the deviations are largely attributable to State interventions.

The Ebbing Tide

In the preceding nine chapters we have sought to present an account of the relationship between State policy and the class structure of present day Ireland. In doing so we have concentrated on how that relationship has been shaped, and how it has been reflected in particular areas within Ireland’s economy and social structure. Our analysis is intended to contribute to the growing body of work which seeks to improve our understanding of the circumstances which encourage the pursuit of autonomous goals by the State and the conditions which affect its capacity to pursue such goals successfully (Evans et al., 1985, p. 351).1