Abstract

The NESC report is a welcome description of serious social deficits and inequalities that persist in Ireland. An analysis of Ireland’s welfare state acknowledges that existing policies and approaches to organising social policy are not tackling social inequalities. NESC argues that Ireland is a hybrid welfare state undergoing multiple changes and proposes an alternative conceptualisation of the welfare state to steer future reforms. This conceptualisation is of a ‘developmental welfare state’ which NESC describes as three overlapping domains of welfare state activity; core services, income supports and activist measures.