Has the Irish development model run its course?

The winter 2024 issue of Studies » takes as its main theme the shortcomings of the Irish development model of heavy reliance on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) as the motor-force of the economy.
As Peadar Kirby and Mary Murphy write in their introduction to the theme, the hazards currently facing this model arise from “greater geopolitical vulnerabilities internationally, political volatility in many of our leading trading partners, the challenges of climate change and the uncertainties of Artificial Intelligence (AI), to name just the major ones”. The European Court of Justice ruling against Apple, they comment, adds to “a sense that the Irish economic and social model, which for decades seemed to serve us so well, despite the significant poverty and various forms of entrenched inequality that persisted throughout , is facing its greatest challenges yet”.
The question raised by these realities is how such a rich country could have such deficient social provision and services in so many areas. The six articles that address this theme fall into two groups. The first three, by Seán Ó Riain, Nessa Ní Chasaide, and Tom McDonnell, focus on structural features of the model, identifying some core features that make the Irish model so particular and, in some ways, so peculiar. The second set of three articles focuses on proposals for a radical reorientation of Ireland’s development model. The first of these is by Michael Taft, the second is co-authored by Fiona Dukelow, Mary Murphy and Orla O’Connor, and the third is by Seán Fearon.
Kirby and Murphy note that all the contributions, taken together, identify “the failure to develop the state’s capacity to address needs and constraints promptly and effectively, to invest adequately in public services and to build the institutional capability to deal with the many challenges ahead.” There is now serious disquiet among multinationals,” they continue, “about the state’s ability to address deficits in housing, water and energy, and the question is being asked whether Ireland can actually deliver”.
Apart from this set of essays, the winter issue of Studies features the text of two public lectures, one, by Paul Shrimpton, on Newman’s university and the other, by Brian Brock, on the theology of disability. There is also a reflection by Ger FitzGibbon on the process of writing an historical novel, as well as an academic biography of Micheál Mac Gréil SJ by Mary Corcoran.