About the book
By the late 1950s Ireland had suffered three economic crises in as many decades, falling significantly behind the living standards of neighbouring countries. Yet at the turn of the millennium it had reached virtual parity. This was all the more remarkable given the economic turbulence of the 1970s and the deep recession which lasted most of the 1980s.
A major contributing factor to this historic convergence was a series of new economic and social policies pursued from the 1950s. While the cumulative effect of these was not anticipated, they produced a boom in the 1990s that was genuinely exceptional by world standards.
The Department of Finance had primary responsibility for setting economic policy throughout the period. It was also charged with a swathe of other responsibilities in its role as 'the Central Department'. Its Ministers and officials were key agents of the changes that transformed modern Ireland.
This book is based on unique access to the vast departmental archive, and gives deep new insights into the governance of the Irish state in these four pivotal decades in its history.
About the Author
Ciarán Casey is an economic historian at University College Dublin. He is author of Policy Failures and the Irish Economic Crisis (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018) and holds a DPhil from Oxford, where he was awarded a Clarendon Scholarship. He was appointed Department of Finance Research Fellow in 2019.
CONTENTS
Abbreviations
Preface
Acknowledgements
Ministers and Secretaries
Chapter 1: The Loneliest Job in Government
1.1 Ireland 1959-1999
1.2 Origins of the Department
1.3 Structure, size and responsibilities
1.4 Ministers
1.5 Civil servants
1.6 Organisational culture and the Finance mind 1. 7 External engagement
1.8 Omerta
1.9 Expertise
1.10 Conclusion
Chapter 2: Sacred Cows
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Economic Development
2.3 Economic programming
2.4 The final battle
2.5 The 1960 Anglo-Irish Agreement
2.6 EEC application and unilateral liberalisation, 1961-1964
2.7 The Anglo-Irish Free Trade Area Agreement, 1965
2.8 Foreign direct investment
2.9 Fiscal policy
2.10 Incomes
2.11 The national heritage
2.12 Managing modernity
2.13 Conclusion
Chapter 3: The Fruits of Tomorrow
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Two new departments
3.3 The state is everybody
3.4 Programming
3.5 Incomes
3.6 The EEC
3.7 Tax policy
3.8 A change of tack
3.9 The European Monetary System
3.10 Policy criticism
3 .11 Economists and modelling 3.12 Industrial policy
3.13 Heritage
3.14 Departmental history
3.15 Conclusion
Chapter 4: Castor and Pollux
4.1 Introduction
4.2 The revolving door
4.3 Coalition
4.4 Tax policy
4.5 Value for money
4.6 State bodies
4.7 Industrial policy
4. 8 Recovery
4.9 Expansionary fiscal contraction
4.10 Rationalisation
4.11 European Structural Funds
4.12 The IFSC
4.13 Policy criticism
4.14 Gender equality
4.15 Heritage
4.16 Conclusion
Chapter 5: Pygmalion
5 .1 Introduction
5 .2 Unemployment and planning 5.3 Tax harmonisation
5.4 The NTMA
5.5 The European currency crisis
5.6 The Structural Funds
5.7 The euro
5.8 House prices
5.9 Corporation tax
5.10 Financial regulation 5 .11 Fiscal policy
5.12 Gender
5.13 Heritage
5.14 Conclusion
Chapter 6: Providence
List of Interviewees Bibliography
Index