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Ireland’s Long Run Social Development and Vulnerabilitythe 20th. century (Fahey, 1999). The huge extension of education,and the increasing recognition of its role in facilitating Ireland’seconomic development, is also, undoubtedly, a major achievementof Irish social policy.This broad view also highlights some of the past limitations, andpresent challenges, of the system. The tax and welfare system, likethose in many countries, was based on a male-breadwinner modeland offered limited protection against some of the risks that manycitizens faced. The social and care services were delegated to bodiesthat did not always respect the dignity and interests of citizens andwere unequally available to different social classes. The activistdimension was underdeveloped.This broad view has the advantage of not focusing excessively ontax and income maintenance. As Esping-Andersen says, “a majorproblem with the design of postwar welfare states was that theypursued ‘equal opportunity’ more through income maintenance thanthrough labour supply management” (Esping-Andersen, 1996:.260). In some respects this broad view yields a more positiveassessment of the evolution of the Irish system. The socialinvestments, such as the expansion of housing and education, aretaken into account. This is important, because income maintenancealone cannot be expected to achieve equality and, where it does, itcreates disincentives to work and education (Esping-Andersen,1996: 264).But when we bring services and activism into the picture, we stillfind that the system has left more inequality than is socially fair oreconomically desirable. More telling still, judged against a goal thathas become increasingly central to Irish economic and social wellbeing—equalityof opportunity—the system has not achieved whatthe Council believes to be necessary.2.3.3 Industrialisation, Class Transformation and SocialMobilityOne of the most profound long-term changes in Irish society wasindustrialisation and the associated changes in class structure.109