Symposium introduction: the politics of public policy in Ireland

Abstract

This Symposium brings together articles focusing on political determinants of public policy in Ireland. It is a product of two recent developments: the re-ani-mation of the Public Policy Specialist Group of the Political Studies Association of Ireland (PSAI) (https://www.psai.ie/specialist-groups/public-policy-specialist-group/) and the development of the Irish Policy Agendas Project (http://irishpolicyagendas.eu/) as part of the international Comparative Agendas Project network. The articles in the Symposium focus on a range of actors that play impor-tant roles in policymaking: interest groups, political parties, legislatures and government ministries. In doing so, they collectively (and in some cases indi-vidually – e.g. Crepaz and Chari) refer to several stages of the policy process, including problem-de fi nition, agenda-setting, policy formulation, adoption and implementation. The articles are diverse in their research questions and empirical scope, but beyond their common concern with policy, they have several features in common: