In the context of the current debate over standards of public services in Ireland and the appropriate level of public spending this paper reviews historical trends in Irish public expenditure, its relationship to GDP/GNP and comparisons with other EU states. The growth in Irish public spending...

Mixed findings emerge from this ex post Cost-Benefit Analysis of a major water investment programme in Ireland. Water supply and conservation investments, where most benefits were internal, generally proved worthwhile. Wastewater investments could not be analysed fully due to lack of...

The purpose of this paper is to review what has been learnt about Irish migration from the work of social scientists, largely economists. For most of its modern history, Ireland has experienced large net outflows. I discuss how the outflow was made up of lower skilled people up until the 1980s...