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Developmental Welfare State

NESC Report on the ‘Developmental Welfare State’

The 2005 National Economic and Social Council Report on the Developmental Welfare State is an ambitious attempt to lay out the framework of the Irish welfare state of the future. It served initially as the starting point for negotiating the national social partnership agreement ‘Towards 2016’.

The central argument of the report is that the welfare state should be seen as consisting of three overlapping spheres of activity: (1) service, (2) income supports and (3) activist or innovative measures. The report argues that these three spheres of activity should be integrated to form a ‘developmental welfare state’. It argues that a radical development of services is the single most important route to improving social protection. It identifies ways in which welfare payments could be redefined and combined with services to create ‘participation packages’. Ireland must build on its strong record of active labour market policies and local partnerships in order to streamline successful innovations and policy experiments. Reform along these lines will pose major challenges for governance and leadership within Ireland’s system of government and social partnership – particularly in the context of the current economic crisis. It will also require new systems for defining and monitoring rights and standards.

EAPN Ireland and the Developmental Welfare State

In April 2006, EAPN Ireland held a roundtable on the Developmental Welfare State and considered the following questions:

  • What the NESC means by the ‘Developmental Welfare State’?
  • What opportunities and threats it presents for groups experiencing poverty and social exclusion?
  • How best organisations working with these groups can best engage with it?

This brief Report summarises the outcomes and conversations that took place at the roundtable meeting. The following is a list of presentations from the roundtable:


Developments at EU Level

The NESC ‘Developmental Welfare State’ Report reflects developments at EU level on Active Inclusion with which EAPN has being actively engaging. Read more.