Irlande

Ireland is highly centralised and fast growing, creating co-ordination challenges in terms of delivering key investments and in key policy areas like transport, housing and education. Actors across levels of government recognise a need for a more coordinated approach to the delivery of the National Planning Framework, the principal spatial planning strategy of Project Ireland 2040, which includes also the National Development Plan (public investment).The report has three objectives which ultimately aim to support more balanced regional outcomes in Ireland: i) to clarify the gaps in terms of regional attractiveness across and within Ireland’s regions, including in terms of population and investment attraction; ii) to assess the ability for the National Planning Framework – in its current form – to address these gaps, and iii) to consider what multi-level governance reforms and attractiveness policies can be introduced or scaled to generate more territorially-balanced development.

Ireland is home to a vibrant social enterprise community, active in essential sectors such as health, care, and education, as well as local development and cultural and creative sectors. This report provides an in-depth analysis of social entrepreneurship and social enterprises in Ireland. It identifies the country’s strengths and challenges and provides policy recommendations. An action plan with concrete and actionable measures is also provided to support Ireland in the development of its new national social enterprise policy. Following an overview of the socio-economic landscape (Chapter 1), the report describes factors underpinning social entrepreneurship, social enterprises and the social economy in the context of Ireland (Chapter 2); analyses the institutional and legal framework around social enterprises (Chapter 3); explores conditions and opportunities for access to finance and funding (Chapter 4); navigates developments in access to public and private markets for social enterprises (Chapter 5); looks at the existing state of social impact measurement and data availability on social enterprises (Chapter 6) and concludes with skills and business development for social entrepreneurship (Chapter 7).

The Rethinking Regional Attractiveness in the New Global Environment report highlights lessons learned from multiple regional case studies from five EU countries (Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Sweden), additional work with Latin American and Caribbean regions, and a series of webinars and one-on-one dialogues on rethinking regional attractiveness. The OECD’s innovative multidimensional approach to assessing regional attractiveness considers global engagement beyond international connections and economic factors alone. The methodology considers more than 50 indicators to develop regional attractiveness profiles covering six domains of attractiveness: economic attraction, connectedness, visitor appeal, natural environment, resident well-being, and land-use and housing. The report helps regional and national policy makers to understand how individual regions fare in a new global environment that continues to deal with the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis, compounded by the consequences of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and existing megatrends – all of which produce asymmetric impacts within and between countries and regions – and identify the policy levers available to enhance their attractiveness to the international target groups of investors, talent, and visitors. It also considers the need to co-ordinate across levels of government, across policy fields, and with private stakeholders, and highlights good practices to implement regional attractiveness policies.

Ireland is at a turning point for the transition to a circular economy. The 2022 Whole of Government Circular Economy Strategy provides the policy framework for the circular economy in the country, and the forthcoming Circular Economy Bill is expected to strengthen waste and circular economy legislation. Nevertheless, with a circularity material use rate of 2% in 2020, Ireland shows significant scope for progress. The report analyses the state of play and challenges of the circular transition in Ireland and provides policy recommendations for circular economy policy across levels of government. It is the result of a two-year policy dialogue between the OECD, the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, as well as a broad range of public, private and civil society stakeholders.

A first step to implement effective migrant integration policies is to know who does what in policy sectors key to integration. Responding to this need, this paper offers policy makers a tool to understand the organisation of public action in key sectors for integration - Employment, Education, Housing, and Health/Welfare – in a sample of 10 OECD countries: Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands. The complexity of the division of powers among levels of government calls for coordination mechanisms between actors, whatever the level of decentralisation. Besides, it throws lights on subnational governments’ role in integrating migrants and enabling them to participate to local development for the benefits of all. The geographic differences that exist in migrant presence and outcomes mean countries should build on local authorities' knowledge of local realities, aptitudes to coordinate different policy fields at the relevant scale and cooperate with non-governmental organisations.

Italy’s start-up visa aims to make the national start-up ecosystem more easily accessible to foreign talent, rich with knowledge and skills, and more integrated into global markets. Government reports show that the programme has not yet achieved a critical scale. The analysis of similar initiatives in Chile, France, Ireland and Portugal identifies five gateways for attracting more foreign entrepreneurs, such as an effective policy outreach, smooth inter-institutional co-operation across the migratory process, and the provision of sound support services for a 'soft landing' of entrepreneurs upon arrival. These takeaways may also inform new talent attraction policies targeting remote workers, an expanding group in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

This report presents evidence-based analysis on Ireland’s higher education transformation process towards an innovative, interconnected and multidisciplinary entrepreneurial system, designed to empower its students and staff to demonstrate enterprise, innovation and creativity in teaching, research and societal engagement. Using the OECD-European Commission HEInnovate guidance for the entrepreneurial and innovative higher education institution, the report assesses strategies and practices for entrepreneurship and innovation in Ireland’s higher education institutions and the systemic support provided by government. Higher education institutions play a critical role in Ireland’s economy and innovation system, which is based on a strong and growing engagement agenda with industry and local communities, the emergence of new learning environments and strong multidisciplinary research teams. This report offers practical recommendations on how Ireland can enhance and sustain the outcomes.