Muiris MacCarthaigh

Managing state-owned enterprises in an age of crisis: an analysis of Irish experience

As with all aspects of public management, the control, financing, and regulation of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are matters subject to changing international trends and domestic political imperatives. The effects of the global financial crisis (GFC) on the ownership, financing, and role of SOEs are still unfolding, but undoubtedly will be heavily influenced by a new era of public sector reforms principally designed to reassert central political controls, as well as by fiscal pressures to balance state budgets. In this regard, the Irish experience is instructive, with the findings from two datasets being used here to examine various modes of state enterprise control and their corresponding autonomy. Significantly, there has been considerable variety within and across the SOE sector, demonstrating the need for more detailed understanding of how SOEs are managed.

Politics, policy preferences and the evolution of Irish bureaucracy: A framework for analysis

Analysis of the Irish states administrative system is an unaccountably neglected area of systematic academic inquiry. This is all the more difficult to account for in view of the dynamic relationship between government actors and the public bureaucracy in realizing political goals. This paper identifies some distinguishing institutional features and dominant trends in Irish politico-administrative governance, and suggests avenues for future inquiry. The paper begins with an examination of the literature on administrative system change, with a focus on the New Public Management literature. Following this, the Irish case is profiled, identifying the evolution of ministerial departments and of state agencies by successive Irish governments, including patterns of agency creation and termination over time. Particular attention is given to the period 1989–2010, which has been one of quite rapid and complex organizational change within the states bureaucratic apparatus.

Analyzing longitudinal continuity and change in public sector organizations

This article provides the introduction to a special edition that presents for the first time a series of detailed country case studies concerned with the matter of organizational life cycles. Building on some recent scholarship, it begins by surveying the development of the field, before setting out some of the key methodological and theoretical issues and challenges involved in adopting a longitudinal perspective to the study of organizational change. It proposes that by capturing the variety of ways in which public sector organizations emerge, survive, and terminate, new perspectives on how administrative systems evolve can be presented and compared.

Sharing services, saving money? Five risks to cost-saving when organizations share services

Shared services are a popular reform for governments under financial pressure. The hope is to reduce overheads and increase efficiency by providing support services like HR, finance and procurement once to multiple agencies. The authors identify five risks that shared services won’t live up to expectations. Each is illustrated with international evidence, before the conclusion discusses ways to manage these risks.

Shared Services in Ireland

The global financial crisis has ushered in a new era of public service reform, in which governments try and reduce the size and cost of the state, change policy discourses and set policy objectives that may previously not have been possible. A common feature of the country-specific reforms adopted has been the concept of shared services, which offers a means of consolidating common ‘back office’ routine tasks, reducing duplication and achieving greater value for money. In a bid to emulate successful experiences in the private sector, the growing use of shared service centres (SSCs) as a new form of co-ordination practice is particularly worthy of further exploration. In this chapter, the introduction of shared service initiatives and the ensuing consequences are considered for the case of Ireland, one of the countries most badly affected by the financial crisis. The following section begins the analysis by presenting an overview of the Irish politico-administrative system and the co-ordination of policy within it, before turning to the recent introduction of shared service architecture. As well as considering the international context, some of the findings presented are gleaned from interviews and communications with those directly involved with SSCs, which have begun to move beyond a formative phase to become an important feature of the Irish administrative system.

Mapping Public Sector Organizations: An Agenda for Future Research

This article summarizes the key findings from the five mapping case studies presented in this special issue and relates them back to the conceptual, definitional, and theoretical issues presented in the opening article (MacCarthaigh & Roness, 2012). In so doing, the article considers the alternative ways in which organizational change can best be captured, mapped, and explained and the key issues to be considered when conducting such exercises. As well as identifying how the case studies have advanced the possibilities for mapping public sector organizational change over time in a cross-national context and the benefits this offers for other aspects of public administration research, the article identifies some impediments to future research and collaboration in the field and suggests ways to overcome them.

Mapping and Understanding Organizational Change: Ireland 1922–2010

Capturing, mapping, and understanding organizational change within bureaucracies is inherently problematic, and the paucity of empirical research in this area reflects the traditional reluctance of scholars to pursue this endeavor. In this article, drawing on the Irish case of organizational change, potential avenues for overcoming such challenges are presented. Drawing on the resources of a time-series database that captures and codes the life cycle of all Irish public organizations since independence, the article explores the evolution of the Irish administrative system since the independence of the state in 1922. These findings provide some pointers toward overcoming the challenges associated with studying change in Whitehall-type bureaucracies.

Joined-Up Government in Ireland: From Un-Strategic Choices to Patriotic Imperatives

Over the last decade, joined-up government has assumed a prominent place in the study and practice of public management. In this article, drawing on the Irish case we adopt an institutionalist approach to the issue of joining-up government and bureaucratic reform. We explore how the period of sustained and rapid economic growth in Ireland during the 1990s was also characterised by a fragmentation of the public service and proliferation of agencies. Subsequently, as a consequence of the sharp contraction in public spending brought about by the global financial crisis, we find an accelerated process of public sector recentralisation, retrenchment and de-agencification. Much of this is occurring in an unplanned manner but under the generic banner of ‘joining up’ government. We identify the drivers behind these dynamics and how they have manifested themselves, as well as the changes to political-administrative relationships brought about by new initiatives, the power imbalances they expose, and ultimately their consequences on public service delivery.

State Retrenchment and Administrative Reform in Ireland: Probing Comparative Policy Paradigms

Abstract Policy choices in response to crisis may carry consequences both for distributive outcomes and for the future policy capacity of the state itself. This paper uses conceptual heuristics to interpret policy practice. It examines the underlying policy paradigms shaping Irish government decisions in the aftermath of the European financial and economic crisis. Drawing on comparative political economy literature, it distinguishes between two such paradigms – market-conforming and social equity – and applies them to three reform themes: reconfiguration of public budgets, the public service pay bargain, and the organizational profile of state competences. The findings entail lessons for understanding the malleability of policy choice, and how state policy choices in response to crisis are framed and implemented.

Bicameralism in the Republic of Ireland: The Seanad Abolition Referendum

Abstract Whether or not a legislature is uni- or bi-cameral has been found to have important consequences. Irelands 1937 constitution provided for a directly elected lower chamber (Dáil Éireann) and an indirectly elected upper chamber (Seanad Éireann). With the appointment to government in 2011 of two political parties with a common electoral commitment to abolish bicameralism, the subsequent coalition agreement included a promise to hold a referendum offering voters the option to move to a unicameral parliamentary system. On 4 October 2013, the electorate voted to retain the upper chamber, albeit by a narrow majority of 51.7 per cent, on a turnout of 39.17 per cent. The outcome was arguably surprising, given that opinion polls signalled a plurality of voters favoured abolition, and there was a general public antipathy towards political institutions in the midst of a major economic crisis. Public opinion research suggests that a combination of factors explained voting behaviour, including a lack of interest amongst those who did not vote. A cost savings argument was a significant factor for those favouring abolition, while concerns over government control of the legislative process appear to have been most prominent in the minds of those who voted to retain the upper chamber.