Managing Europe From Home: The Europeanisation of the Irish ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

In Ireland, the cabinet determines the overall policy programme of the government, it takes all major policy decisions and approves the budget and all other legislation to be submitted to the Oireachtas. It is the decision-making body of an executive structure composed of the Department of the Taoiseach, which includes the office of the Chief Whip, and the ministerial departments. As discussed above, because of the convention of collective responsibility members of the cabinet are bound by, and must uphold, all cabinet decisions. The running and efficiency of cabinet meetings is significantly influenced by the personal style of the Taoiseach involved. The cabinet meets weekly, all ministers are requested to attend, along with the Attorney General and the Chief Whip and the Secretary General to the Government (who is currently also Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach). The legislative programme of the government is drawn up and monitored by the Legislative Committee of the Office of the Chief Whip. The cabinet’s monitoring and implementation of the government’s legislative programme is facilitated by the establishment of cabinet sub-committees. Although Ireland lacks an institutionalised system of cabinet committees, it does make some use of more informal or ad hoc sub-committees, especially during coalition governments. These sub-committees have often been transient in nature rather than developing into permanent structures on the cabinet landscape. The usual explanation is that the ‘multiple calls on ministers’ time makes it difficult for such committees to meet with regularity’ (Byrne et al. 1995). In contrast to most other member states in the EU, the Irish core executive remains relatively under-institutionalised (O’Leary 1991: 137) Ministers are charged with setting the policy parameters of their departments and with making all policy (rather than administrative) decisions. The responsibility of the minister for all of the activities of his/her portfolio known as ‘ministerial responsibility’ is the second constitutional convention that influences how Irish Government operates. The minister takes decisions, but civil servants have always
played a key role in the detailed development and implementation of policy in Ireland. The Irish Civil Service The culture and structure of the Irish civil service bear a number of similarities to that of Britain. Gallagher, Laver and Mair have characterised the British civil service as ‘generalist’ as opposed to ‘specialist’ (Gallagher, Laver and Mair 2001: 138). This type of bureaucracy is characterised by a heavy reliance on civil servants who are selected and work on the basis of general administrative and managerial skills, as opposed to possessing any particular technical expertise. In the recruitment process, there is no emphasis on particular subjects or professional expertise. As in Britain, the official Irish civil service culture is non-partisan. Officials are servants of the incumbent Government rather than political appointees. Civil servants involved in the policy making process are barred from political activity. The character of the Irish civil service was summed up by Chubb as incorruptible, non-partisan, and usually anonymous corps whose members, secure in their employment, considered themselves the servants of the legitimate government, whoever they may be (Chubb 1982: 262) The grading system of the Irish civil service was also inherited from Britain. The general service is divided between the clerical grades, the executive grades and the higher civil service. The higher civil service consists of the Secretaries General at the apex of the pyramid, in some departments Second Secretaries, Assistant Secretaries, Principal Officers and Assistant Principals. The Principal Officers form the operating core of the system as they act as head of divisions. Since the mid-1980s, Irish ministers have also employed political or policy advisors who work alongside the Minister and senior civil servants and have an input into policy formulation and management. In the 1993-1997 Governments, the system of policy advisors was institutionalised when each minister appointed a programme manager. The programme managers were an important filter between the administrative and political level and helped in the preparation of Cabinet discussions. The system of programme managers has persisted but with fewer policy advisory staff.
Page 1 and 2: Managing Europe From Home: The Euro
Page 3 and 4: Among practitioners and academics,
Page 5 and 6: the executive of conflicts between
Page 7 and 8: analyses the Irish core executive
Page 9 and 10: 2002 appointed a Minister of State
Page 11: Arts, Sport & Tourism Health & Chil
Page 15 and 16: encourage mobility across departmen
Page 17 and 18: attention in the Irish service. In
Page 19 and 20: Ireland’s approach to the managem
Page 21 and 22: as the Department of Finance was th
Page 23 and 24: The preparations for the 1975 Presi
Page 25 and 26: egions in 1988 in response to Commi
Page 27 and 28: membership of the European Affairs
Page 29 and 30: Figure 2: Levels of management of E
Page 31 and 32: Table 1: Ministerial involvement in
Page 33 and 34: VERTICAL STRUCTURES - THE CORE-CORE
Page 35 and 36: committees serviced by the Unit inc
Page 37 and 38: Political Advisors Taoiseach Minist
Page 39 and 40: Those changes were a response to me
Page 41 and 42: Department. The Consular Division i
Page 43 and 44: other officials work in the ESDP un
Page 45 and 46: Figure 5: Department of Foreign Aff
Page 47 and 48: Central Bank, the Budget Council, o
Page 49 and 50: The two preparatory committees for
Page 51 and 52: The Inner Core Although EU business
Page 53 and 54: operational as the sectoral coordin
Page 55 and 56: Agriculture The Department of Agric
Page 57 and 58: 133 Committee on EU foreign trade i
Page 59 and 60: Organisational structure below mini
Page 61 and 62: Amsterdam and by the implementation
Page 63 and 64:
Figure 9: Structure of Department o
Page 65 and 66:
The recognition that a high quality
Page 67 and 68:
and Children, Department of the Mar
Page 69 and 70:
Department’s business in relation
Page 71 and 72:
from the significant expansion of t
Page 73 and 74:
Table 5: EU Committees in the Irish
Page 75 and 76:
The Permanent Representation The Pe
Page 77 and 78:
SECTION III - PROCESSES AND PROCEDU
Page 79 and 80:
Within each department and across t
Page 81 and 82:
and when the implementation of EC l
Page 83 and 84:
departments have co-ordination unit
Page 85 and 86:
Commission proposals on the introdu
Page 87 and 88:
SECTION IV - THE AGENTS Participati
Page 89 and 90:
margin and should use that margin w
Page 91 and 92:
There are several well-entrenched n
Page 93 and 94:
One senior Government advisor sugge
Page 95 and 96:
• Cultivating ever better relatio
Page 97 and 98:
will be an accessible database of t
Page 99 and 100:
The above characteristics influence
Page 101 and 102:
Department of the Environment and L
Page 103 and 104:
O’Donnell, Rory. Ed. 2000. Europe
Page 105 and 106:
Appendix 1 Table 6: Attendance by M
Page 107 and 108:
Bar Chart 2: Infringement Proceedin
show all

Managing Europe From Home: The Europeanisation of the Irish ...

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?