By 2022,Ireland will be celebrating 100 years of self-government. This book emerged from the Public Service 2022 project, coordinated by the Institute of Public Administration to look towards some of the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for public services in Ireland. The idea behind the project was to address the issue of how the public sector can respond to emerging long-term trends in Irish society. The research and economic projections undertaken for the project show that a ‘window of opportunity’ is available to Ireland in making choices that will affect our future, before we are faced with new challenges such as an ageing population.
The project identified major trends and drivers of change - economic, social, demographic, technological, environmental - and issues related to governance arrangements and public service provision on the horizon. These were examined during a series of workshops in 2006.Different events were held to discuss views on the Ireland of the future, and the likely response in terms of public service provision. Participants included a mix of individuals drawn from the civil service and government departments, state agencies, local authorities, health care, the Gardaí, primary, secondary and third-level education, private sector companies, and voluntary sector organisations.
A number of possible scenarios for the future emerged out of these discussions. The real value of scenarios and foresight work generally is in encouraging thinking about long-term trends and how organisations might prepare themselves for possible eventualities. In the second part of this book a start is made in that process of reflection by incorporating a number of chapters giving different perspectives on choices that lie ahead and how we can prepare to meet them. These chapters examine both challenges and opportunities for Ireland in a range of areas, including quality of life, economic performance, physical and social infrastructure, and democracy and governance. A number of high-level contributors from the world of politics, the civil service, local government and the health service then reflect on how public services need to change in order to prepare for the future.
Contributors:
- Dr Alan Barrett
- Dr Sean Barrett
- Professor Frank Barry
- Adele Bergin
- Dr Richard Boyle
- Dr Mark Callanan
- John Cullen
- Seán Dorgan
- Professor Brendan Drumm
- Alan Dukes
- Professor Ronan Fanning
- Julie Gannon
- Dr Martin Mansergh, TD
- Dermot McCarthy
- Yvonne McCarthy
- Ruairí Quinn, TD