January 27th: Together with the Adelaide Hospital Society and the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice, TASC will be hosting a major one-day conference - Health Service Reform and the Government's First Year: What Progress - on Thursday March 8th in the Croke Park Conference Centre.  the conference will be opened by Dr James Reilly TD, Minister for Health, and will feature a range of prominent speakers.  Click here to download the preliminary notice and list of confirmed speakers;  full programme details will be uploaded in the coming weeks.

In order to defray the costs associated with hosting this event, there is a conference fee for attending this event.  The conference fee is €75 (organisation), €30 (individual) or €10 (student/unwaged). 

Please e-mail contact@tascnet.ie to book your place. 

January 10th: TASC Director Nat O’Connor today  said that the data provided to the European Commission, European Central Bank and IMF by the Irish authorities under the terms of the EU-IMF agreement should be published simultaneously in Dublin. Dr O’Connor was referring to the data listed, together with a schedule of provision, in Annexes to the Memorandum of Understanding and the related Quarterly Reviews ...

December 8th:  TASC today issued its response to Budget 2012. Entitled 'Roadmap to Greater Inequality',  TASC’s analysis indicates that the measures in this week’s Budget will fail to generate growth and jobs, and will disproportionately impact on low-income groups. The document is available for download here.

November 25th: Last week's seminar on The Nordic Models: Resilience in Changing Times attracted a capacity audience and heard a range of stimulating contributions.   Click here to view the programme, and see below the fold to download presentations and videos.

November 17th: TASC and the Centre for Small State Studies at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik have jointly issued a working paper by Professor Peadar Kirby of the University of Limerick and Professor Baldur Thorhallsson of the University of Iceland.  Entitled 'Financial crises in Iceland and Ireland: Does EU and Euro membership matter?', the paper examines the role that membership of the EU and the Euro played in the case of Ireland, contrasted with Iceland which is a member of neither.

Professors Kirby and Thorhallsson will both be speaking at the seminar on 'The Nordic Models: Resilience in Changing Times' being hosted by TASC in collaboration with the Embassies of Denmark, Finland and Norway today in Croke Park.

November 14th: Independent think-tank TASC today launched Winners and Loser? Equality Lessons for Budget 2012. Produced with support from the Equality Authority and the EU PROGRESS Fund, the report examines the impact of Budget 2011 on women and men, and on different income groups and household types. A summary of the highlighted findings is available here, and you can click here for a digtal version of the document.

November 4th: In an initial response to the Government’s Fiscal Statement, TASC Director Nat O’Connor this afternoon expressed disappointment that the Government had chosen what he termed “the wrong road to recovery”.

“This austerity strategy is shrinking the economy without significantly shrinking the deficit. Fewer jobs, less tax coming in and more welfare spending will all make it more difficult to close the deficit”, Dr O’Connor said ...
 

November 1st:  TASC today launched its proposals for Budget 2012, entitled Towards an Equality Budget.  Speaking at the launch this afternoon, TASC Director Nat O’Connor said that the narrow focus in previous budgets on government finances, rather than the health of the whole economy, has been economically and socially damaging.  The independent think-tank is proposing that any savings to public spending should be reinvested in frontline services and welfare, with no overall cuts, but suggests that a further €2 billion can be saved each year from 2012 to 2023 by restructuring the Anglo Irish promissory notes. TASC also proposes using €1.2 billion from the NPRF over each of the next four years to invest in education, skills and infrastructural projects to support jobs. In terms of tax, TASC recommends €3 billion in targeted tax measures designed to support economic recovery.  The full document is available for download here, and a TASC Note summarising the proposals is available here. A digital version is available for download here.

October 27th: Our economic model of development is failing us. Unemployment is high, public services are being cut and wealth is increasingly concentrated in the hands of the few. It is time to talk about alternatives. It’s time to talk about an economy for society. Join us in Cork to debate the social, environmental and economic reasons for change. Claiming our Future is organising a major event in Cork's Millenium Hall on November 5th (registration: 10 am) to debate the elements for an alternative approach to development in Ireland.

Individuals and organizations from the full breadth of civil society will take part. A working group will be organized to follow up the ideas discussed and to take action to promote an economy for society. The discussion will focus on prosperity and what we mean by prosperity. It will explore how current policies might or might not serve our vision of prosperity. It will examine what we can do to promote alternatives. Click here for more details.

October 18th:  The 2011 FEPS/TASC Autumn Conference was held on Friday, October 14th, and Saturday October 15th.  Videos of the event - including the closing keynote address delivered by Professor James K. Galbraith of the University of Texas at Austin - will be uploaded later in the week, but in the meantime we've uploaded some of the PowerPoint presentations.  The programme for the event is available here, and the presentations are available below the fold.  Our pic shows Professor James Galbraith making a point during the session on 'Escaping the Debt Trap' ...

October 13th:  Stuart Holland - one of the speakers at the FEPS/TASC Autumn Conference - has influenced national and international policies since he was an adviser in his twenties to Harold Wilson. He proposed the Union Bonds which Jacques Delors endorsed in his December 1993 White Paper.  Prof Holland has updated this in relation to the Eurozone crisis, recommending a conversion of national bonds to Union Bonds to stabilise debt and net issues of Eurobonds to fund economic recovery which also could provide the more plural global reserve currency system that the BRICS have called for. His paper Union Bonds, Eurobonds and a New Deal for Europe has been endorsed by several former heads of state and government, and passed to key members of the Ecofin and Eurogroup finance ministers.

October 7th:  Click here to download a paper just published by FEPS (the Foundation for European Progressve Studies) on the relationship between inequality and wealth.  It finds that a comparison of the levels of wealth and inequality in different countries shows that countries with a high degree of inequality in general have lower levels of wealth. While this might sound counter-intuitive, the paper sets out the empirical evidence that supports the hypothesis. It finds that rising inequality results in a lower level of prosperity. In addition, higher inequality also results in a lower level of economic prosperity, lower levels of education and poor institutions that have more corruption, more political instability and lower levels of democracy.

October 3rd: Independent think-tank TASC today launched its ‘Flourishing Society’ project. The project centres on a series of essays that provide ideas for how Ireland can become a society of equals. Among other topics, the essays discuss how the economy can serve society, how we can draw on both our own history and the experiences of other jurisdictions for inspiration, and what institutional reform is required to bring about a ‘Flourishing Society’.

Authors include Dr Fergus O’Ferrall (Adelaide Lecturer in Health Policy, TCD), Sinéad Pentony (Head of Policy, TASC), Philip Orr (researcher and writer) and Robin Wilson (former director, Democratic Dialogue). A composite paper, bringing together the different themes addressed in the essays, is available here.
 

October 3rd: "[The public health policy] must promote equality through the provision of high quality, publicly funded and unversally accessible public health services, and by paying particular attention to those groups or sections in society where improvement in health and life expectancy are not keeping pace with the rest of the population". Click here to read TASC's Submission on A Public Health Policy Framework for a Healthier Ireland, and here to read TASC's recent report, Eliminating Health Inequalities - A Matter of Life and Death.

September 30th: Yesterday's well-attended seminar on 'Incomes - Instruments of Recovery', held in Cork, provided a lot of food for thought.  The programme is available for download here.  Videos will be uploaded early next week, but in the meantime we've posted some of the presentations ...

September 14th: "The current crisis, which has given rise to widespread apathy, distrust, cynicism and hopelessness, is the fruit of a crisis in values at the core of a global economic system that puts profits and markets before people.

How can we say that political life is democratic when economic power is concentrated in the hands of a few, and easily converted into unconstrained political power?"

You can read the full text of TASC Head of Policy Sinéad Pentony's address to the 2011 Desmond Greaves Summer School here.

September 8th:  Just 31 per cent – or fewer than one-in-three – of respondents to TASC’s 2011 Equality Survey believe that state assets should be privatised, as against 42 per cent who strongly disagree/disagree with the proposition. 27 per cent did not know or expressed no opinion. Publication of the results comes amid reports that a memorandum is being prepared for Government detailing which state assets could be sold to raise revenue.
Commenting on the survey results, TASC Director Dr Nat O’Connor said ...
 

September 1st: Bookings are now open for the seminar on 'Incomes - Instruments of Recovery' being hosted by TASC and FEPS (the Foundation for European Progressive Studies) in Cork on September 29th.  The seminar will be held in the Metropole Hotel and will run from 9.45 am (registration: 9.15 am) to 4.15 pm; a light lunch will be available. Click here to download the programme.

Admission is free, but TASC will be accepting donations on the day to help defray costs.  Places are very limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.  To book a place please click here.

August 8th: Over two-thirds of respondents to 2011 TASC Equality Survey say access to hospital healthcare unequal

Nearly 50 per cent say access to primary healthcare unequal

68 per cent of those responding to the 2011 TASC Equality Survey, carried out in late May and June by Behaviour & Attitudes, believe that access to hospital healthcare is unequal, while 49 per cent believe that access to primary healthcare is unequal.

Commenting on the findings, TASC Head of Policy Sinéad Pentony, who earlier this year co-authored the TASC Report Eliminating Health Inequalities – A Matter of Life and Death, said ...

July 18th: TASC today issued Public Appointments: Options for Reform, a paper authored by former TASC Director Paula Clancy and current Director Nat O’Connor. A PDF of the paper is available for download here.

The paper examines the ad hoc and politicised manner in which people come to be appointed to the boards of public bodies in Ireland and present alternative models for a more independent system for public appointments, along with arguments for more meritocracy, transparency and diversity in public appointments. The paper argues that reform in this area is urgent, and that the current ad hoc process needs to be replaced with clear rules – regardless of which model or mix of models is formally adopted.

By combining data available from the Irish State Administration Database with TASC’s own list, the paper estimates that there are currently over 600 public bodies and boards/committees operating on a nationwide basis, in addition to local and regional bodies ...

July 7th:  The 2011 FEPS/TASC Autumn Conference will take place on Saturday October 15th in Croke Park and will be preceded on the Friday by an Expert Round Table on Financial Regulation.  As was the case in 2010, the Conference will be held in partnership with FEPS, the Foundation for European Progressive Studies. Speakers already confirmed for the Autumn Conference include Professor James K. Galbraith, who will give the keynote address, and Professors Stuart Holland of Coimbra University (Portugal) and Yanis Varoufakis of the University of Athens, who will take part - together with an Irish representative - in a panel discussion on the issues currently facing Portugal, Greece and Ireland.  Further information on the conference will be posted here shortly, and bookings will open in August.

June 14th: TASC this afternoon launched a major new report on health inequalities in Ireland. Entitled ‘Eliminating Health Inequalities – A Matter of Life and Death' (digital version available here), the report outlines the interrelationship between economic inequality and inequality of health outcomes. The report was authored by TASC Head of Policy Sinéad Pentony and health policy analyst and journalist Sara Burke, with input from the TASC Health Inequalities Advisory Group, chaired by Prof Joe Barry, Chair of Population Health Medicine, Department of Health and Primary Care, TCD ...

June 9th: Last week, Mary Robinson delivered the 2011 TASC Annual Lecture - on the theme of Justice for All - Even in Climate? - to a packed audience in the Royal College of Physicians.  The Lecture was followed by a lively Q&A session.  Click here to watch the video, and you can download the text of her address here.

Our pic shows (left to right) John Fanning (chair, TASC Board of Directors), Mary Robinson, TASC Director Nat O'Connor and TASC Head of Policy Sinéad Pentony.

May 31st:  The following statement has been issued by members of the TASC Economists’ Network, comprising economists, economic analysts and social scientists:

“We broadly welcome the Report of the Independent Review of Employment Regulation Orders and Registered Employment Agreement Wage-Setting Mechanisms. In particular, the recommendation that the basic JLC framework should be retained is good news for many thousands of low-paid workers. We also endorse the conclusion reached by Kevin Duffy and Frank Walsh that reducing JLC rates to the minimum wage level would have important distributional consequences without having any substantial effect on employment.

May 19th: Equality think-tank TASC today launched ‘The Debt and Banking Crisis: Progressive Approaches for Europe and Ireland’, a discussion paper authored by TASC policy analyst and economist Tom McDonnell.  A digital version of the document is available here.

• Paper proposes replacement of blanket bank guarantee with guarantee for deposits only
• ‘Extend and pretend’ strategy should be used to avoid paying Anglo promissory notes

Read more below the fold.

April 14th: Equality think-tank TASC today released Myths of the Irish Crisis: Wages and Competitiveness, a discussion paper by TASC economist Tom McDonnell examining two distinct but related claims. First that Ireland lost competitiveness within the European Union in the last decade and second that high labour costs in low-wage sectors are contributing to the employment crisis. A digital version of the document is available here.

Based on a review of the literature together with Eurostat data, the paper concludes that Ireland did not suffer an overall loss of competitiveness prior to the economic crash. The paper also refutes arguments that labour costs in the low-paid services sectors – sometimes viewed as undermining Irish competitiveness – are high by international standards. Instead, an examination of Eurostat data projects that 2010 labour costs were 9.3 per cent below the EU-15 average in the hospitality sector, and 8.8 per cent below the EU-15 average in the wholesale/retail sector.

April 4th: Scott Millar of Siptu's Liberty Magazine interviewed TASC Director Nat O'Connor for the latest issue.  During a wide-ranging interview, Nat pointed out that "a myth often comes out during a recession is that people are reluctant to get jobs; however, as the very low unemployment rates during the boom indicate, there is a willingness to work.  The real problem is there is a need for investment to create jobs for people to apply for".  Click here to download the interview, which also addressed issues surrounding taxation and public services, as well as open government and appointments to State boards.

February 21st: In a new Working Paper, Jim Stewart and Gerry Hughes of the TCD Pension Policy Research Group - which has collaborated with TASC on our pension policy proposals - have taken a look at the different party manifestos and their implications for pension policy.  The Working Paper can be downloaded here.

January 5th:  A video of the Christmas TASC Encounter featuring former Taoiseach Dr Garret FitzGerald interviewed by Susan O'Keeffe is now available here;  the Q&A session will be uploaded later this week.  Watch this space for news of future TASC Encounters.

December 5th:  In advance of the Budget, independent think-tank TASC today launched ‘Public Expenditure Explained’, a multi-output project initially comprising two discussion papers - An Initial Discussion on Public Expenditure: Rationales and Constraints and Public Expenditure: The Composition of Spending, Income Equality and Economic Growth - as well as an online tool designed to visualise government spending. Further discussion papers will be issued over the coming months, and the online tool will be updated as and when new spending information is made available ...

November 25th: In its preliminary response yesterday to the National Recovery Plan’s income tax proposals, TASC’s noted that those on the average industrial wage will take the same hit as top earners . A telling example shows that single persons on €40,000 and those earning €300,000 will both see their income tax bills rise by €1,860 based on changes to basic credits and tax bands. Today, TASC has issued more detailed figures illustrating the disproportionate impact of the proposed income tax changes on low and middle income earners.  Click here to read the full statement and view the accompanying graphs.

November 19th: "The last months have shown that the wrong choice is being made by the European Conservatives. Theirs is a choice based on excessive public budget cuts, destroying jobs and dismantling the welfare state as a result. Their focus on accelerated fiscal consolidation is by definition short-sighted and its employment and social consequences are disastrous. Furthermore, by weakening the perspective of a quick and sufficient recovery process, they also endanger the long term viability of public finances in Europe".  As we await December's Budget, the announcement of the four-year plan and the outcome of the current talks with the IMF, you can read the full paper given by Pervenche Berès MEP to last month's FEPS/TASC Autumn Conference here.

November 1st:  This week, we will be uploading videos of the two-day FEPS/TASC Autumn Conference, 'Towards Recovery', held in Croke Park on October 22nd/30th.   Click here and here to watch the morning session of the Expert Round Table on the Economy, featuring Francois Isserel (FEPS), Paul Sweeney (ICTU), Lawrence Mishel (Economic Policy Institute, Washington) and Stephany Griffith Jones (Initiative for Policy Dialogue, Columbia University).  This session contrasted differing international experiences of, and responses to, the recession.

Go to the Autumn Conference page for further video links and papers.

Our pic was taken before the Saturday morning plenary, and shows (left to right) TASC Director Paula Clancy, ICTU General Secretary David Begg and Professor Stephany Griffith Jones of Columbia University's Initiative for Policy Dialogue.  In the background are Pervenche Berès MEP and Dr Ursula Barry, who chaired the session.

October 14th:  TASC this morning launched its proposals for Budget 2011.  Entitled Investing in Recovery, Jobs, Equality, the document outlines a strategy designed to reduce the deficit while creating the conditions for sustainable growth and job creation.  A PDF of the document is available here, and the Executive Summary can be downloaded here.

TASC has four key interlinked proposals:

TASCNet is a new network of people interested in working with us to help transform Ireland. If you share our vision of a more equal and democratic society, and would like to make a positive contribution to realising that vision, then 'Get Involved' by joining the TASCNet programme  ...

September 10th:  In a new thinkpiece, Dr Damian Tobin of the University of London examines government policy on the banking crisis.  Government Policy and the Banking Crisis: Vindicated, Misled or Flying Blind? is also available for download as a PDF. 

September 6th: New TASC figures show 77 per cent of survey respondents would prefer to work than stay at home for same pay

Responding to reports that those receiving unemployment assistance could be coerced into taking up “social employment” positions through the threat of losing income supports, TASC Head of Policy Sinéad Pentony said today making such schemes mandatory was unnecessary and would simply serve to stigmatise participants ...

August 25th:  TASC today launched Stimulating Recovery, a pamphlet collating papers by London-based economic consultant Michael Burke, UCD Professor Ray Kinsella and TASC Head of Policy Sinéad Pentony at a recent seminar.  Stimulating Recovery is available digitally or as a PDF, and Sinéad Pentony's statement can be downloaded here.

July 29th: TASC today published two discussion papers The Role of Access to Information in Ireland's Democracy (download PDF here) and An Economic Argument for Stronger Freedom of Information Laws in Ireland (download PDF here). The papers, authored by TASC Policy Analyst Dr Nat O’Connor, form part of a project on Public Information, which will restate the case for strong laws to enforce the public’s right to know what government and public bodies are doing ...

July 20th: Speaking following a presentation by equality think-tank TASC on ‘The Minimum Wage’ to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment, (presentation available for download here) TASC Director Paula Clancy said that any moves to reduce the minimum wage or JLC rates would represent what she termed a “double strike against economic recovery” ...

July 15th: Speaking this afternoon following a presentation to the National Pensions Framework Implementation Forum, TASC Head of Policy Sinead Pentony said that, although TASC welcomed some elements of the National Pensions Framework, much work still needed to be done to ensure that workers could look forward to a secure income in retirement ...

July 15: "An ever-growing body of research indicates that the failure to adequately tackle mental health issues could have potentially serious economic repercussions. Studies undertaken both internationally and within Ireland have revealed the importance of ensuring states pay attention to the mental health of their populations. At the same time, there has been an increasing awareness that in order to develop an effective approach to mental health, it is simply not enough to concentrate solely on medical solutions".

You can read the rest of the thinkpiece by Justin Frewen and Dr Anna Datta here, and a PDF is available for download here.

July 9th 2010: The video of the Q&A session following the 2010 TASC Annual Lecture, delivered by Professor Kathleen Lynch, is now available here.  Our pic shows (l to r)  Professor John Horgan, who chaired the event, TASC Director Paula Clancy and Professor Kathleen Lynch.

June 30th: TASC today published its Submission to the Financial Regulator relating to the Regulator’s Consultation Paper on corporate governance requirements in the financial sector. Click here to download a PDF of the submission, and here to read the statement issued by TASC Director Paula Clancy.  A digital version of the Submission is available here. See below the fold for the main requirements which TASC urges the Financial Regulator to include ...

June 18th: The 2010 TASC Annual Lecture, delivered by Professor Kathleen Lynch, is now available online.  Click here to download a PDF of 'From a Neo-Liberal to an Egalitarian State: Imagining a Different Future'.  The digital version is available here.

June 1st: In a paper prepared for the Carnegie Trust's Commission of Inquiry into the Future of Civil Society in the UK and Ireland, Dr Jim Stewart - Senior Lecturer in Finance at TCD - argues that:

The banking and economic crisis has drawn attention to failures in many aspects of the current banking and financial system in Ireland. Alternative banking models such as mutually owned financial institutions can help provide part of the solution to the current crisis. One of the features of the current crisis is that most alternative banking institutions, both in Ireland and other countries, have suffered lower losses and required less state aid than publicly-quoted financial institutions. Yet in the debate on possible solutions to the banking crisis in Ireland, alternative banking models are rarely discussed.

The full paper is available for download here.

May 25th: "Social, cultural and economic forces have functioned to block the achievement of a full citizenship status for people with disabilities. Among the obstacles are the scattered privatisation of service provision, a related lack of transparency in how public expenditure is actually incurred and a reluctance to cede the autonomy and independent living arrangements which people with disabilities want and expect as equal citizens". Read Pauline Conroy's thinkpiece on Disability, Difference and Democracy. Some Rights and Wrongs. (also available as PDF here).

May 13th: A small number of interconnected businesspeople operated at the apex of Irish business during the boom years 2005-2007.
In a major new piece of research, Mapping the Golden Circle (digital version available here), equality think-tank TASC has revealed the extent of the network across 40 of Ireland’s top private companies and state-owned bodies in that period ...

March 26th:  Two new thinkpieces are now available on the TASC website. A Crisis of Ethics: Moral Hazard and Banking Regulation in Ireland by Dr. Damian Tobin of the University of London addresses the issues of moral hazard, ethics and behaviour in banking regulation in terms of the recent domestic banking crisis (PDF available here).  Meanwhile, Nigel Ryan asks Why are most of the best jobs on Irish radio and TV still the preserve of men? (PFD available here).

March 8th 2009: 28 economists, social scientists and economic analysts have written an open letter, published in today’s Irish Times, arguing that the Government's economic strategy is failing, and warning that the current approach of spending cuts combined with tax increases on low and average income earners will bring about a low-growth, high-debt future ...

March 4th 2010: Issuing TASC’s response to the Pensions Framework Document launched yesterday, Head of Policy Sinéad Pentony said that the proposals provided a positive basis on which to move forward. However, she stressed that the proposed supplementary pension should be fully administered, funded and delivered through the social insurance system, rather than through the private pension sector ...

November 18th: Together with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, TASC today launched the Hierarchy of Earnings, Attributes and Privilege (H.E.A.P.) report, designed to present the facts about income inequality in Ireland in an accessible form. The report – which was authored by NUIG academics Professor Terrence McDonough and Jason Loughrey – comprises a poster illustrating the numbers of households at different income levels, broken down by occupational category and household type, together with an explanatory booklet (PDF available here) ...