While problems in the housing system in Ireland have been under the spotlight for the last decade, relatively little attention has been paid to the experience of children and to the consequences of housing issues for child development. International research has highlighted a range of effects of...

Early childhood is a key life stage and early childhood experiences are crucial not only for children's well-being, but for their subsequent development. There is increasing evidence that social inequalities in outcomes emerge even before children start school, and a large body of international...

Care is fundamental to the fabric of social relationships and a significant proportion of the adult population is engaged in regular care for children and/or adults with illnesses or disabilities. Increasing attention internationally is being paid to the role of young carers (those under 18) and...

Labour market inclusion is a key component of gender equality. In recent decades, in Ireland and Northern Ireland, women have increasingly entered paid employment. Yet, comparative research across the island on the level and conditions of women's participation remains limited. Different...

The 21st century has seen significant social, political, and economic change on the island of Ireland. This report draws on multiple sources of high-quality, comparative social survey data to explore the development of social and political attitudes in Ireland, North and South, over the past 25...

While men occupy the majority of senior positions in the Civil Service, they are more likely than women to perceive gender bias in promotional competitions, according to an ESRI study. The study draws on survey responses from 904 Civil Servants within the Department of Agriculture, Food and the...

The influence of fathers on child experiences and outcomes has been given much less attention in international and Irish research than the influence of mothers (Fitzgerald et al., 2020). The Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) study has collected very detailed information from fathers throughout the...

For many commentators the litmus test of integration is how well the children of migrants are faring. This report investigates whether children born in Ireland to migrant parents differ from children with Irish-born parents in terms of their English language development at three, five and nine...

In this paper, using Ireland, where debt issues are of particular salience as a test case, we seek to understand the extent to which the measures currently employed as national indicators of poverty and social exclusion succeed in capturing over-indebtedness and, more broadly, severity of debt...

Recent rapid economic growth in Ireland has been accompanied by a strong surge in the number of women in employment, and this has led to a significant increase in the proportion of dual-earner families. These changes have brought the issue of reconciliation between work and care commitments to...