The Construction of Irish Social Policy 1953-2003

This chapter examines economic, social, political, and organisational aspects of the Irish welfare settlement as this evolved during the last half century. The idea of a welfare consensus in society, articulated through politics and shifting over time, has been a much-used device in explaining the historical changes that have emerged in social policy at internati onal and national levels. For instance, the notion of a post-war consensus about the direction of British social policy has been employed in discussions of the emergence of the 'welfare state'. Some recent approaches to social policy have related such pol itical and economic settlements to processes of societal change through an examination of the ways in which social policy is constructed and reconstructed through shifts in dominant ideas about the nature of social problems (what social policy should do) a nd dominant constructions of social membership (who social policy is for). Within such perspectives social settlements are seen as crucial to understanding political and economic settlements. To these three headings a fourth, the idea of an organisational settlement, is added. This is employed to discuss the ways in which social policy is delivered with particular emphasis upon relationships between users and providers of welfare.