eolas magazine issue 43 Jan 2021

Informing Ireland’s decision-makers...

Investment, innovation and recovery KPMG’s Michele Connolly Accenture MD Pat Power reflects on digital transformation of third-level institutions

Sinn Féin spokesperson on Enterprise, Trade and Employment Louise O’Reilly TD talks business

DPER Minister Michael McGrath TD discusses national priorities issue 43 Jan 21

Health • Education and skills • Technology and innovation

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Contents

12

04

Matters arising

06

Issues 06 08 12

42 22

National Service Plan ex-ante analysis Interview: DPER Minister Michael McGrath TD Cover story: KPMG’s Michele Connolly discusses infrastructure and economic recovery

Round table discussion: Transforming the future of public services through technology Hosted by

30

22

35

Health 38 42 46 56

71

106

Sponsored by

Profile: Health Minister Stephen Donnelly TD HBS Business Excellence and Digital Innovation Assistant National Director Julie Ryan Critical care capacity in Ireland Legislative priorities in health

Education and skills 72 80 82 92

114

Interview: SF spokesperson on enterprise, trade and employment Louise O’Reilly TD

Sponsored by

Profile: Education Minister Norma Foley TD Covid-19 and second level education Action Plan for Apprenticeships latest Education capital project update Sponsored by

95

Technology and innovation 98 102 106 112

118

114

Europe 114 116

118

138

140

Interview: EESC Vice President for Communication Cillian Lohan Brexit and the Internal Markets Bill

People 118

122

Open Source in government Transport 5.0 and the digitisation of transport Séamus Davis explores a strategy for quantum technology in Ireland Government review of Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund

A Ghost in the Throat: Doireann Ní Ghríofa

Public affairs 122 128 130 138 140

Raison D’être of the Shared Island Unit Press freedom: Loughinisland journalists Joint committees of the 33rd Dáil and the 26th Seanad Meet the media: Europe Correspondent for The Irish Times Naomi O’Leary Back page: Women’s Aid CEO Sarah Benson

Date for your diary!

Housing Conference 2021 21

Jan

Thursday 21st January 2021 ONLINE CONFERENCE Housing in Ireland is at a crucial juncture. Housing policy was a defining battleground of General Election 2020 and the subsequent formation of the triparty coalition Government heralded a new Programme for Government incorporating the Housing For All mission. This new strategy has the stated intention of placing affordability, increased supply and home ownership at its core.

Simultaneously, while the Covid-19 crisis looks set to impact on housing construction and delivery, it quickly elicited new legislation to protect renters and marked a decrease in the number of people experiencing homelessness or living in emergency accommodation over five consecutive months.

In this context, the 2021 conference will feature a range of expert speakers who will examine the latest ambitions, challenges and opportunities for resolving Ireland’s housing and homelessness crises.

Expert speaker panel includes:

Key issues to be examined:

Darragh O’Brien TD

Sorcha Edwards

Minister for Housing, Local

Secretary General

Government and Heritage

Housing Europe

Austin O’Carroll, Clinical

Declan Dunne

Lead for Homeless Services

CEO, Respond and Chair

in Dublin, HSE

Housing Alliance

Rory Hearne

John O’Connor

Assistant Professor

CEO

Maynooth University

The Housing Agency

Fiona Cormican

Marian Finnegan

New Business Director

Chief Economist

Clúid Housing

Sherry Fitzgerald

3 Housing for All ambitions and delivery  Affordable housing: Lessons from Europe  Migration, integration and housing  Case study: St Mary’s Mansions flat complex redevelopment  Covid-19: Public health and homelessness  Private investment, construction and the Irish property market  The holistic role of AHBs in delivering affordable housing  Reclaiming, reimagining and rebuilding a vision for public housing

Online www.housing.eolasmagazine.ie

By telephone 01 661 3755

By email registration@eolasmagazine.ie

eolas Issue 43 Jan 2021

Editorial

Cause for hope…

Owen McQuade, Managing Editor owen.mcquade@eolasmagazine.ie

Hope and optimism are distinct. While optimism is firmly rooted in

Ciarán Galway, Deputy Editor ciaran.galway@eolasmagazine.ie

the tangible, Czech playwright and dissident Václav Havel wrote: “Hope transcends the world that is immediately experienced, and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons.” In other words, hope is a state of mind, not a state of world; a driver of human endeavour even in the face of hardship and encroaching bleakness. Now is a time for hope.

Ireland arrives in 2021 on a wave of significant geopolitical change, accompanied by prevailing winds of the ongoing pandemic and economic uncertainty. However, there is cause for

David Whelan david.whelan@eolasmagazine.ie Fiona McCarthy fiona.mccarthy@eolasmagazine.ie Odrán Waldron odran.waldron@eolasmagazine.ie Advertising Sam Tobin sam.tobin@eolasmagazine.ie

hope. The emergence of Covid-19 vaccination programmes, the

Design

dawn of Joe Biden’s US presidency and renewed climate consciousness offer opportunity.

Gareth Duffy, Head of Design gareth.duffy@eolasmagazine.ie

After a tumultuous year, the core challenges of housing and

Paul Rooney paul.rooney@eolasmagazine.ie

health service capacity are more pertinent than ever, as is the task of delivering on climate action objectives. Each of these elements will greatly inform Ireland’s post-Covid recovery. One major cross-sectoral commitment underpinning this recovery is

Events Lynda Millar lynda.millar@eolasmagazine.ie

countercyclical investment in infrastructure. Our cover interview

Become a subscriber!

with Head of KPMG Global Infrastructure Michele Connolly

Annual subscriptions: €15.00 + €5.00 P&P

examines the long-term value of sustainable infrastructure planning, funding, delivery and maintenance.

Alongside this, eolas Issue 43 is replete with timely current and public affairs analysis, complemented by detailed reports on health, education and skills, and technology and innovation. Our comprehensive content is supplemented by interviews with DPER Minister Michael McGrath TD, HSE Assistant National Director for Business Excellence and Digital Innovation Julie Ryan, Sinn Féin’s Louise O’Reilly TD and EESC vice-president Cillian Lohan among others.

Contact: Sharon Morrison Email: subscriptions@eolasmagazine.ie Online: www.eolasmagazine.ie eolas Magazine bmf Business Services Clifton House Lower Fitzwilliam Street Dublin, D02 XT91 Tel: 01 661 3755 Web: www.eolasmagazine.ie Twitter: @eolasmagazine

I wish all our readers a happy new year.

Athbhliain faoi shéan is faoi mhaise daoibh!

Ciarán Galway FSC® is an acronym for the Forest Stewardship Council®, which is an independent, non-governmental, not-for-profit organization that was established to promote the responsible management of the world’s forests. The FSC® system provides an assurance that products such as wood and paper have been harvested in a socially and environmentally responsible manner.

www.eolasmagazine.ie

The FSC’s Chain of Custody certification provides a way in which the material can be tracked from the certified initial source through the manufacturing process to the end user.

matters arising

Diaspora strategy launched Speaking at the launch of the strategy, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said: “There are around 70 million people around the world who are Irish-born or of Irish descent and this strategy celebrates these people and all who have a special affinity with Ireland. It cherishes their diversity, champions our connections with each other and seeks to give our diaspora a strengthened voice within Irish life, while also setting out the many ways this Government will work to support the Irish abroad.”

The Government launched its diaspora strategy, Global Ireland: Ireland’s Diaspora Strategy 2020-2025, in November. The strategy aims to tackle issues such as undocumented Irish abroad, voting rights in presidential elections, and the future of the diaspora.

abroad; our values, which seeks to

The strategy is broken down into five categories: our people, with the aim of ensuring the welfare of the diaspora

influence, which is concerned with

promote Irish values and celebrate the diversity of the diaspora; our prosperity, which looks to build mutually beneficial ties with the diaspora; our culture, which seeks to support cultural expression throughout the diaspora; and our connecting with the next generation of the diaspora.

Minister of State for the Diaspora, Colm Brophy TD, also speaking at the launch, added: “Our first priority always will be the welfare of our people abroad. Irish community-based organisations play a vital role in helping vulnerable Irish emigrants and we will continue to support their work through the Emigrant Support Programme. Just as Ireland is changing, so too is the experience of emigration. Young people will still go abroad but, when they want to come home, we want to make that an easy process. Ireland is today a more diverse and multicultural country and so too is our diaspora. This is something we value and will celebrate.”

New Women for Election CEO named Women for Election, the Irish group focused on the promotion of women in politics, has named Caitríona Gleeson as its new CEO. Gleeson joins Women for Election from SAFE Ireland, where she had been Communication and Programme Manager since 2008.

Alison Cowzer, Chairwoman of the Board for Women for Election, said that the Board were “really pleased to welcome Caitríona as the new CEO of Women for Election at a time when the organisation has ambitious plans for 2021 and beyond, we look forward to training and supporting many more women as they begin their political journey”.

Gleeson said that her “focus will be on

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leading collaborations that will significantly reduce the barriers that women face in the world of politics”.

According to the Interparliamentary Union, Ireland sits at 93rd place in the world for female parliamentarians, with 23 per cent of TDs being women and 24 per cent of local councillors also women.

“I look forward to working with women from a diversity of backgrounds to help realise their skills and talents to succeed in political life. I’m delighted to be working with our highly skilled board and team and our many supporters to lead transformative programmes which will help change the face of politics in Ireland,” Gleeson said.

matters arising

Government investigating high number of homeless deaths deaths were recorded in 2019 and 2018 respectively.

Not all of these deaths have occurred on the streets, with some occurring within homeless services also.

Speaking at the launch of the Peter McVerry Trust’s annual report for 2019, O’Brien said: “It isn't a trend that anyone wants to see... each death is a death too many. Is it because services are not being provided? I'm not so sure, but it's something I take very seriously, that I am looking at.”

Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien

Helping Homeless (ICHH) Dublin held a

TD has asked the Department of

demonstration outside of the Dáil,

Housing, Local Government and

where 56 black balloons were raised for

Heritage to begin an investigation into

each of the homeless deaths in the

the number of homeless deaths that

capital this year. With over a month to

have occurred in Dublin in 2020. In

go in the year, the figure had exceeded

early December, the charity Inner City

50; in contrast, 34 and 35 homeless

CEO of the Trust Pat Doyle warned that the pandemic and its associated pressures upon mental and physical health are driving more people towards drug use and addiction, while ICHH CEO Pat Flynn also warned that deaths will “skyrocket” over the winter months without appropriate action. Flynn revealed that the charity has been engaging up to 165 people per night in its work.

Taoiseach brands Finucane decision “cruel” any progress towards the truth” and that “some dark secrets have been hidden and it’s time they were revealed”.

The decision was announced by Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Brandon Lewis MP. The Taoiseach said that he had spoken with Pat Finucane’s widow Geraldine to “make it clear to her and her family that the Irish Government will continue to work with the Finucane family to keep the pressure on, to ensure that eventually a public inquiry is held”, that the decision “only corrodes public trust generally in the British state's capacity to deal with issues that it committed to dealing with” and that “proper relationships between two governments Taoiseach Micheál Martin TD has branded the British Government’s decision not to hold a public inquiry into the 1989 murder of Belfast solicitor Pat

Finucane “arrogant and cruel”.

Speaking in the Dáil after the decision had been announced, Martin said that there had been an effort to “undermine

and two states, must be founded on the principle that when agreements are entered into, they are followed through”.

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HSE National Service Plan: Significant improvement wanted by Donnelly Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly TD has written to HSE Chairman Ciarán Devane ahead of the publication of the HSE’s National Service Plan to demand significant improvement in Irish health services.

After the €3.5 billion increase in health spending that was announced in Budget 2021, taking the health budget to a record €21 billion, Donnelly addressed a letter to HSE Chair Devane to say that the “unprecedented level of investment” should be used to increase capacity and permanent staffing levels, to progress the implementation of various national strategies and to advance the implementation of Sláintecare.

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Donnelly also emphasised the need for the HSE to continue its transition towards community care, emphasising that the HSE’s National Service Plan, which was due to be published but has not been forthcoming as yet, should “continue to prioritise the provision of care in the home and in the community to the greatest degree possible”. In his letter, the Minister for Health told Devane that he wants to see a “minimum” of 2,600 additional open and staffed EDs in acute and community

settings in 2021 and that the extra funding should enable the health service to hire up to 16,000 additional staff.

Donnelly also wrote that while the number of community beds must increase, the amount provided by the HSE was expected to be initiated at the least, if not raised in tandem.

In the upcoming National Service Plan, the HSE’s agreement with the Government over how its budget will be

issues eolas

spent, Donnelly said that the HSE should outline “estimates of the number of employees, by grade, category and service area, consistent with the net noncapital expenditure limits together with a monthly profile of whole-time equivalent posts and costs, an overview of the full year cost of the proposed recruitment, and details of the executive’s strategy to deliver on this major expansion of the workforce”.

The Government is also pressing the HSE to publish an action plan concerning access to care along with its National Service Plan. Donnelly wrote in the letter that the Government wants to see the “implementation of integrated structural reforms to modernise and future-proof our health service”. He also said that he wanted the HSE to deliver “increased levels of healthcare to our citizens in community and primary care settings” and that the key priorities for the healthcare system would be to “protect vulnerable groups, service users, patients, healthcare workers, and the wider public in the face of Covid-19 in line with national and international public health guidance, with a specific focus on ensuring the health system is prepared to meet the emerging challenges”.

The Minister said that a total of 24.2 million home care hours should be provided in 2021 and that progress is expected towards the full rollout of community services, community health networks and specialist teams across Ireland. The letter stipulates that at least 5 per cent of the home care hours allocated under the plan should be reserved for patients suffering with dementia.

When breaking down the Government’s criteria for the allocation of the budget, Donnelly said that the Fair Deal nursing home scheme should receive €1.062 billion next year, with the State Claims Agency receiving €410 million. It also advises that €21.1 million has been provided to fund HSE Brexit preparation under the assumption of no deal or a “vey limited” EU-UK free trade agreement at the end of the transition period, said funding is “inclusive of €4.7 million allocation for the proposed direct reimbursement scheme for Northern Ireland medical expenses which is being held back by the Department pending the

“There is significant scope for improved service delivery and reform within the totality of the net determination provided to the executive in 2021, alongside a continued focus on securing greater value-for-money and efficiency at a system level and the local procurement level.” Stephen Donnelly TD, Minister for Health outcome of EU-UK negotiations and the ongoing review of the impact of Covid-19 travel restrictions on the proposed scheme”.

Within the letter, the Minister also outlines Government priorities for the increases in both net non-capital expenditure and net capital expenditure. Two of the most notable increases within the record healthcare budget were the extra €534 million and €181 million in net non-capital expenditure and net capital expenditure respectively. The letter starts the legal timeframe for the HSE to draw up the plan and submit it to Donnelly, which must be done by late November or early December 2020 but has not yet been published at the time of writing. The letter also notes that €261.6 million is being held for specific new initiatives.

the impact of the pandemic on cancer service and patients presenting.

Despite significant drops in lung, breast and prostate cancer clinics in March and April, breast clinics have now outstripped 2019 attendance figures. Attendances at prostate clinics fell to 40 per cent of 2019 levels but have since recovered to 76 per cent. Risteárd Ó Laoide, the national director of the National Cancer Control Programme, said that the HSE had diagnosed 90 per cent of breast, lung and prostate cancers compared to 2019 levels, which equated to 371 “lost cancers” in these categories. Surgical oncology also dropped to 31 per cent of 2019 levels but has since returned to 71 per cent.

“There is significant scope for improved service delivery and reform within the totality of the net determination provided to the executive in 2021, alongside a continued focus on securing greater value-for-money and efficiency at a system level and the local procurement level,” Donnelly wrote.

Ó Laoide said that, pre-Covid, clinics

Relatedly, the measures contained within the National Service Plan and the HSE’s Winter Plan have been touted as the solution to the issue of Covid-19’s impact on cancer diagnosis service. The HSE has estimated that up to 2,000 diagnoses may not have been made in 2020 due to

this is seeking out the most urgent case

were “running at full speed… now they have two stones on their back and they’re continuing to run at full speed to provide the service”. “The most important thing that we’ve been trying to do is efficient and effective triage of patients who are referred. This is very important because which need to be seen quickly,” he said. Ó Laoide added that there is “significant funding” in both the Winer Plan and the National Service Plan for cancer services that will help the HSE deal with the issue.

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Recovery and reform: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Michael McGrath TD The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER) is perhaps the most pervasive of all government departments, offering a ‘helicopter view’ of government. Ciarán Galway sits down with DPER Minister Michael McGrath TD to discuss priorities and ambitions.

Having sat as a government backbench TD from 2007 until 2011, Michael McGrath spent nine years on the Fianna Fáil opposition benches before his party returned to government in June 2020 and he was appointed as Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform.

Almost five months into his new role, the deputy for Cork South-Central is “thoroughly enjoying” what is a “hugely challenging role”.

“I have come in at a time of great challenge. As soon as I was appointed, we were immediately focused on the July Stimulus Package, so that was almost like a mini budget in the first few weeks of the Government’s life,” he says.

This was swiftly followed by Budget 2021 which outlined the highest proposed level of spending in the history of the State.

Aside from delivering this programme of

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spending, priorities for the Minister include securing a new public service pay deal, working towards a free trade agreement, an early review of the National Development Plan (NDP) and decisions on public health restrictions in response to Covid-19.

Budget 2021 Inevitably, Budget 2021 was largely dictated by the Covid-19 pandemic and, as such, health was the single most important factor in its composition. “The core objectives framing the Budget were to keep people safe, provide the resources necessary through our health service to deal with the pandemic through the winter and right through 2021,” the Minister outlines.

With an allocation of €22 billion in 2021, the largest ever health budget is intended

to mitigate the pandemic while increasing the permanent capacity of the health service with additional beds and the recruitment of around 16,000 health professionals across the system.

Meanwhile, stressing the Budget’s “commitment to deliver an increased public housing programme and the provision of funding for a range of affordable housing initiatives” he also suggests that it will go some way to initiating the implementation of “a very ambitious climate action agenda”.

Even with the extraordinary context informing Budget 2021, the DPER Minister is adamant that government departments did not get it all their own way. However, “that didn’t stop departments coming forward with hugely ambitious proposals and asks that we were simply unable to meet”.

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Simultaneously though, he insists there were no attempts made to “drive a wedge between me and [Finance] Minister Donohoe or our respective departments” and overall, he feels the Budget was well received.

Influence Detailing some of the broader influences on Budget 2021, McGrath explains that both he and Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe TD share “one overriding objective” and that is to ensure that Ireland avoids a scenario similar to the 2008 financial crisis and its subsequent fallout.

In particular, the Minister references his “experience of witnessing, in close quarters, what the government at that time had to do and the impact it had on society” as well as the burden it placed on then Finance Minister, the late Brian Lenihan jnr, who had a “huge influence” on McGrath’s career.

“We believe that the best way of

(EWSS) and the Covid Restrictions Support Scheme (CRSS) have been a lifeline to individuals and business across the State. However, the DPER Minister acknowledges that “they’re not sustainable forever”.

The decision to prolong the PUP scheme until the end of March 2021 and also to restore the top rate of €350 was taken “because we felt that it was the right thing to do when so many people were losing their jobs directly because of health restrictions”. However, while wage supports will continue throughout next year, the Government has resisted providing a longer-term commitment to the PUP. Instead, an income-linked system was introduced and will be kept under review.

The Minister is cognisant that there are currently over 200,000 people on the live register on much lower rates of social welfare. “There are a range of factors that need to be taken into account. We’ll take it into review. We now have 350,000 people on the PUP. It’s costing about

“We are determined to stay within the pack in European terms and to be unremarkable.

We don’t need to be among the lowest deficit group, but we certainly cannot afford to be an outlier at the other end.” achieving that is by supporting our economy at this time because that is the right thing to do, but in addition, keeping a firm eye on having sustainable public finances and a responsible approach to budgeting.

“We are determined to stay within the pack in European terms and to be unremarkable. We don’t need to be among the lowest deficit group, but we certainly cannot afford to be an outlier at the other end,” he maintains.

€104 million per week. These are very large sums of money and no government can sustain that indefinitely, but for now it is the right thing to do,” he asserts.

Viability Asked if there will come a point whereby payment supports for business might be restricted to enterprises which exhibit long-term viability beyond the pandemic, rather than acting as a lifeline to unviable enterprises, the Minister argues that

Covid supports Throughout the Covid crisis, payment supports such as the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP), the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme

businesses that were viable up until March 2020 deserve “the benefit of the doubt” and should be given every possible chance of coming through the crisis.

Conceding that some businesses will inevitably fail, he contends: “Many more would have failed except for the extraordinary level of state support, which has been extended through the commercial rates waivers, the restart grants, the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme and of course the Covid Restrictions Support Scheme for businesses that are shut or are doing minimal trade a result of government imposed restrictions.

“Those are very difficult calls for any government to make about individual businesses. But, as time goes by, I think the picture will become clearer as to what sectors will be permanently scarred and what businesses may not survive. For now, the focus is on giving them every fighting chance of coming through. There is light at the end of the tunnel. We had very positive news on the vaccine front and so hopefully we won’t have to sustain this level of support for as long a period as we otherwise would.”

Public Service One positive consequence of the Covid19 crisis, as identified by McGrath, is a “renewed sense of appreciation of what really matters and of the imperative to have good public services”. As a result, he envisages, “we will have a larger state coming out of the pandemic”.

Highlighting efforts to secure a potential successor to the Public Service Stability Agreement, the DPER Minister is hopeful.

Paying tribute to “the outstanding work of our public servants right through the Covid-19 pandemic”, the Minister believes that a new public service pay deal would deliver valuable certainty and stability, however, he does not underestimate the challenge of agreeing such a deal.

“Our public service pay bill next year will be close to €22 billion. It is about 30 per cent of our overall current expenditure so I think that agreeing a deal that provides certainty to both sides is the most desirable outcome. But there will be needs on both sides. The unions will have asks on behalf of their members and I understand that, but I also have to take account of the wider economic environment and the strain that our public finances are under.

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“We will be looking, of course, to continuing with the reform agenda and for that to be part of a successor agreement to the PSSA. I think the next number of weeks will be decisive as to whether we get a deal or not,” he calculates.

National debt With the imposition of Level 5 restrictions in late 2020, the Government deficit is now expected to total €22 billion in 2020 and €25 billion in 2021, or 6.3 per cent of GDP and 7 per cent of GDP respectively.

This is more than double the 3 per cent deficit limit under the Stability and Growth Pact, which has been temporarily suspended.

“These are huge sums of money,” McGrath accepts, adding: “We are going to have a national debt that is over €240 billion by the end of next year and, thankfully, we are able to fund that at the moment because the country is credit worthy.

“We can borrow at historic low interest rates. Even though our stock of debt is rising, our servicing costs are falling and the average interest rate that we are paying across our total portfolio of debt is falling and is now 1.6 per cent. So, the benefit of that low-interest rate environment has been of enormous value to Ireland. Without that, we would not be able to do what we are doing in continuing with this level of support.”

However, once the European Central Bank withdraws its exceptional support, there will be a need for normalisation.

“The markets will take a view of different countries and we know where we need to be. We need to be on a sustainable pathway,” he says.

Deficit reduction The current level of volatility renders it difficult to make predictions with any degree of certainty, however, Ireland must demonstrate that it has a plan for deficit reduction.

“Early next year, we will lay out our medium-term fiscal framework, setting out our pathway to reducing the deficit because when the extraordinary interventions of the European Central Bank end, we don’t want to be exposed because we know the potential risks that

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“As time goes by, I think the picture will become clearer as to what sectors will be permanently scarred and what businesses may not survive.

For now, the focus is on giving them every fighting chance of coming through.” come with that for countries.”

The Government is currently working on a new National Economic Plan and in April 2021 will publish its plan for deficit reduction in the Stability Programme Update.

“I think Ireland has demonstrated, over the last decade, that it has the capability of putting its public finances on a sustainable path. We know the direction that we need to go. The best way of achieving that is by getting the economy back to growth and bringing about economic recovery,” the Minister says.

For now, the strategy of running large budget surpluses to reduce both the

national debt and overreliance on corporate tax receipts has been set aside. “We’ll have a deficit for a number of years for sure. It’s going to take a while to eliminate a deficit of over €20 billion,” McGrath remarks.

“Normal rules have been suspended at EU level for now. At some point in time they will be reinstated, and we will have to start moving initially towards the 3 per cent deficit and then ultimately towards a broadly balanced budget. That’s what we will do. The issue of paying down national debt is down the line. For now, it’s about getting the deficit into a sustainable position and that will take a number of years.”

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Revenue raising As such, additional revenue raising measures will be inevitable, though the Minister insists it is too early to say when they might be introduced. Indicating that the Government will approach the matter on a budget-by-budget basis, he maintains that “it would be unwise of any government minister in an economic portfolio to categorically rule out doing things down the line”.

“There are no direct plans to do so at this point in time. There will be a new Commission on Welfare and Taxation set up by government in the next number of weeks and I expect that that commission will identify options that will be open to government.

“I think it’s fair to say that the PRSI system in Ireland is in need of an overhaul. We need to examine what is being paid in and what people are getting in return for that.”

NDP review Amid the ongoing economic crisis, infrastructure investment has been identified as a route to sustainable recovery and the Government is determined to pursue a countercyclical approach to public spending. Any cuts to investment at this time, it is felt, would likely compound an already difficult situation.

“This is the time to stand behind public investment. We are expanding capital investment, even though the State’s finances are under great strain, but we have reached a new record high of over €10 billion in capital investment for 2021.

“It’s almost certain we will see a diverting away from some commercial construction and there will be capacity there for the State to avail of. The idea is to recognise that there is return from investment, that this is the time to do it and that it provides genuine support and

employment for the economy but also increases the permanent productive capacity of the Irish economy,” McGrath states.

In November 2020, the DPER Minister brought forward and launched a midterm review of the National Development Plan (NDP) to reassess investment in the context of Programme for Government priorities.

McGrath advocates for a “larger, more ambitious” plan and the Government intends to outline a new 10-year capital investment envelope with five-year rolling budgets for individual departments.

Asked what he envisages, the Minister responds: “I can’t put a figure on it at this point in time, but it will be a larger plan, we’re adding three years to the plan.

We’re going out to 2030 and we’re looking at the capacity within the system to deliver on all of these projects “I would be expecting departments to give more up-to-date estimates of the cost of delivering different projects and we expect departments to prioritise projects in line with the Programme for Government commitments, in climate change, housing, transport and so on, and also in a way that is consistent with the overarching vision for the country, which this government has reaffirmed its commitment to, in the form of Project Ireland 2040.”

Intragovernmental relations The collaborative approach to Budget 2021 established a sense of cohesion between the government parties that had been conspicuously absent. This cohesion is perhaps best personified by the constructive working relationship between the ministers for Public Expenditure and Reform and Finance.

McGrath describes it as a “good working relationship” and reflects on his

“The issue of paying down national debt is down the line. For now, it’s about getting the deficit into a sustainable position and that will take a number of years.”

interactions with Paschal Donohoe TD during the four years in which Fianna Fáil underpinned the minority Fine Gael government through a confidence and supply arrangement.

“I think a mutual respect has built up and I think we have a reasonable understanding of each other, and we are politicians who adopt a pragmatic approach and try to find a way of working through problems. I think it’s important for government that the two ministers in these departments work well together and we certainly do,” he says.

However, the DPER Minister does concede that it is difficult to maintain a distinct party identity in coalition. “We have had challenges in the last number of months and some of the opinion polls haven’t been very good, but I think we have to take a longer view of this. We haven’t been in government in a decade, we have an opportunity now to demonstrate that we can govern well, that we can help the country to meet the major challenges that it is facing with Covid, with economic recovery, with Brexit, climate action and providing the investment in health and housing that is badly needed.

“We are occupying key portfolios within the government. I think we need to just knuckle down, focus on the job at hand, do the best that we can. I believe that that is the most effective way of convincing people that Fianna Fáil is best placed in government where it can and will deliver.”

Discussing his personal ambition, McGrath suggests that a leadership vacancy in Fianna Fáil is unlikely to arise for a number of years. Asked if he intends to one day lead the party, he replies that he hasn’t “ruled it in or out”.

“When that opportunity does arise, I’ll consider the option of going forward at that stage. But for now, I love the job that I am doing. I am learning a lot every day. I think Micheál Martin is proving to be an excellent Taoiseach and I think he deserves the full support from the party and the public. I know how much he is putting into at a personal level and I will do all I can to support him and we’ll see what happens down the line. Who can predict the future?”

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Infrastructure investment, innovation and recovery The Covid crisis has disrupted economies across the globe to an extent unrivalled in living memory. Now, investment in infrastructure offers a route to recovery. Ciarรกn Galway discusses innovation, long-term value and investment with KPMG's Head of Corporate Finance and EMA Head of KPMG Global Infrastructure, Michele Connolly.

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Infrastructure permeates all sectors from healthcare and housing to communications, transport and energy.

The Covid-19 pandemic is having a similarly pervasive impact on these sectors, necessitating resilience and adaptation. Some of this will be irreversible. Inevitably, infrastructure is not unscathed. Aside from the obvious challenges, there are also opportunities.

From an infrastructure perspective, Michele Connolly identifies three major impacts of the pandemic.

Firstly, it is driving up significant demand in certain sectors, particularly on health infrastructure and for digital infrastructure which have experienced unparalleled demand. “Equally, it is driving up demands on infrastructure in sectors such as education. For instance, pre-existing space constraints within schools have now been magnified in trying to cope with social distancing,” Connolly adds.

“It has been very heartening to see the Government’s emphasis on maintaining and enhancing the investment in infrastructure.” otherwise known as infratech, is a significant trend for the future and it has just been supercharged,” she asserts.

“This means looking to see how we can utilise digital technologies to drive greater efficiency and effectiveness in how we use our assets and elongate the lifespan of infrastructure.”

Secondly, and simultaneously, the pandemic is driving down demand in the transport sector, impacting road, rail and air travel. Though the EMA Head of KPMG Global Infrastructure suggests that this has to be viewed as temporary because “we must ensure that we have a sustainable transport system going into the future” and emphasises that “Covid will not be with us forever”. However, she acknowledges: “The pandemic has put huge pressure on the cost base of all our transport providers, whether public sector or private. So we need to support them as we will need them into the future.”

Long-term value

Thirdly, the Covid-19 crisis is having a catalytic effect on innovation and this extends to infrastructure projects. “The pace of change is growing exponentially, and this is transforming how we work and how we conduct business.

Previously, such change may have taken 20 years,” Connolly says.

“Organisations, whether public or otherwise, can often be resource constrained and must consider how to drive better efficiency and effectiveness from their asset base, in effect ‘sweat the asset’ to a greater extent. However you cannot continue to sweat an asset without minding it as you go. As an example, many of our semi-states which have significant infrastructure asset bases are now managing them in a different way to continue to derive better value from them.”

Innovative solutions vary from the utilisation of drone technology to inspect a site which cannot be accessed due to public health restrictions or embedding digital solutions, such as cashless ticketing, into existing transport networks. Such innovations are likely to be permanent. “The impact of digital embedded within our infrastructure base,

Depending on the infrastructure asset that is being constructed, its useful lifespan could range from 30 to 50 years, if not more. To minimise repair-spend and extend usefulness, assets should be effectively managed over this lifespan.

“Much like getting a car serviced, when you build a piece of infrastructure, the same rigour must be applied to protecting the health of that asset throughout its lifecycle. By doing so, cost is minimised, as is disruption and down time. It also provides better service to end-users.

The crisis has also heralded a new approach to supporting clients in their decision-making. Connolly indicates that while her clients often collect a

substantial volume of data, this does not necessarily translate into providing useful information and as such they are unsure of how to best derive value from it.

As such, in October 2020, KPMG acquired Future Analytics, an Irish planning, economics and research consultancy with a focus on helping clients analyse that data and convert it into information.

“KPMG Future Analytics uses demographics, for example, to help people make decisions around infrastructure development, housing strategies, property development or the location for new retail outlets. It takes data that is publicly available from several sources, analyses it and presents it in a very graphical way to enable clients make better decisions. That’s the focus of the future. People are hungry for information as very distinct from simply data,” she affirms.

Sustainability Another factor that must now be factored into infrastructure planning, delivery, maintenance and funding is sustainability. A decade ago, sustainability budgets were regarded as an optional add-on and while regarded as ‘nice to have’, they were susceptible to cuts. Today, things have changed, and sustainability has become a priority. “We haven’t seen any evidence to suggest that sustainability budgets are under pressure,” Connolly says, adding: “If anything, it has been the area of our business that has been most active since the advent of the Covid crisis.”

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Pressure is now emanating from shareholders, regulators, staff and the public to encourage organisations to reflect on how their operations can become more sustainable. “The sources of capital are under pressure from their shareholders to make sure that they are considering environmental, social, and corporate governance in their investments.”

Global trends Overall, the current infrastructure trends in Ireland are broadly congruent with those globally. For instance, health infrastructure is experiencing increased pressure in all countries. “The difference has been in how well people have been able to bolt on temporary pieces of infrastructure to allow for additional capacity, whether it’s the deal with private hospitals in Ireland or the Nightingale facilities in the UK, which KPMG played a part in developing,” Connolly outlines.

Likewise, public transport systems across the world are experiencing similar declines in demand. “There’s no magic solution because we still require a functioning transport system and it’s very hard to make that work effectively with such temporary declines in demand. We sometimes think Ireland is different and we beat ourselves up about it, but we’re following global trends,” she suggests.

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At the same time, however, the infrastructure industry has not wavered in its trend towards broadening the definition of what infrastructure comprises. As such, investors, developers, operators, service providers and contractors are still keen to diversify their footprints and spread their risk.

“Infrastructure players can still see the need for infrastructure investment has not changed. If anything, it has magnified. Most jurisdictions were and still are playing catchup,” the KPMG Partner indicates, adding: “The longterm nature of sustainable infrastructure investment is very attractive to investors.”

Investment In both the short and medium-to-longterm, countercyclical investment in infrastructure can act as a driver of growth during times of economic downturn. Connolly believes that the current context has created the optimal conditions to promote and incentivise public infrastructure development.

“Firstly, construction activity benefits the economy generally, including providing direct jobs on site and generating a myriad of economic activities in an indirect manner. Secondly, it helps Ireland to gain competitive advantage as an economy,” she explains.

Indeed, while during the previous

recession, capital budgets were cut and infrastructure projects halted, the current Government has re-emphasised its commitment to public infrastructure in both the Programme for Government and the capital expenditure proposed in Budget 2021.

“We haven’t observed any additional delays or negative impact on any of the projects we’re involved in from Covid related funding pressures. It has been very heartening to see the Government’s emphasis on maintaining the planned investment in infrastructure so we avoid adding to the infrastructure deficit that already exists,” Connolly states.

“Continuing that investment will have both immediate and long-term productive benefits for the economy.

Infrastructure development costs a lot of money and there is substantial funding pressure on the Exchequer, but the State must look medium-to-long-term as well as short-term.

“I believe that investment in public infrastructure has been accepted as a key driver of economic growth. However, there continues to be blockages to the fast and effective delivery of infrastructure projects that must be addressed.”

Blockages While acknowledging the requirement for

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strong governance, Connolly believes that the overall project development and approval process is too slow. “The time that it takes to go from conception of an idea to its delivery on site is too long,” she argues.

“When a project does get to site, the relationship between the contractor and the public sector client is still not one of partnership, it’s still too adversarial. That leads to the wrong culture on site and, subsequently, to delays. There are multiple reasons for that. The government form of contract is just one.

“Resetting the relationship between the contractor and the State would be a big improvement. Strong political leadership is also a significant factor. When I see projects driven over the line, it’s often because there is a political champion at the top who doesn’t take no for an answer and as a result, blockages fall away.”

Welcoming the early Review to Renew, the review of the National Development Plan (NDP), Connolly asserts that it should focus on doing things better and faster. “Yes, there should no doubt be some element of a reprioritisation of projects but we also need a different lens applied in this review. We have a big programme of projects; now we must work to address blockages and get them to site and completion faster.”

Megaprojects As part of the NDP review, there is no doubt that megaprojects such as MetroLink will be in the mix. As the era of the megaproject dawns in Ireland, and as such projects become larger, more complex and subsequently, riskier, assurance will increasingly come to the fore.

“If a project is €100 million in value, it has its own set of challenges. If a project is €1 billion in value, it doesn’t just mean it is bigger but that it has a whole other degree of complexity within it. That means it requires different governance structures and a different level of assurance.

“Boards, regulators and stakeholders must have confidence that a project is going to deliver on its intended objectives. KPMG has a proven track record of facilitating this in the UK,

“Firstly, construction activity benefits the economy generally, including providing direct jobs on site and generating a myriad of economic activities in an indirect manner. Secondly, it helps Ireland to gain competitive advantage as an economy.”

Canada and Australia. Now, we are starting to see that come into the megaprojects in Ireland, driving an additional level of comfort and assurance for key stakeholders.”

sector will always flex upwards if they can see a strong and certain pipeline of demands for it,” she elaborates.

Construction capacity

Overall, throughout the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, individuals and organisations have proven to be adept at adjusting work practices at an unprecedented pace. While some of this change is born out of sheer necessity, much will be sustained into the future.

Ultimately, from an infrastructure perspective, the impact on demand and innovation will be enduring.

While there was initial cessation of activity across the construction industry during the initial public health restrictions, most sites returned to work relatively quickly. Subsequently, the most significant challenge facing the industry has been the disruption to supply chains and the import of material from abroad.

“That will cause a rethink into the future about how contractors leave themselves less exposed. Rather than bulk buying from one manufacturer which is geographically remote, they will either build up larger stock bases in Ireland or diversify their selection of suppliers to mitigate an overreliance on one. That in itself places pressures on the logistics industry in Ireland, but in a positive way because it should drive new demand and open up opportunities for new suppliers,” Connolly says.

The Covid-19 pandemic has also created an opportunity in construction capacity.

With a projected lull in commercial construction, will there be additional capacity for the State to avail of? “The commercial sector might be quieter for a while, but some of that skillset, at least, can certainly be turned to addressing the infrastructure needs of the State. Now would be a time to capitalise on that. But equally, the capacity in the construction

Future of infrastructure

“We’ve proven that working from home does work. We’re not going to work from home indefinitely, but a hybrid model will be possible.

“This will change how our cities get planned because we won’t have the same volume of footfall each day. Some of that change we are seeing is temporary, some of it is permanent. We must focus on the positive aspects of that change which are advantageous in the long-term, plan accordingly and embed the new demands into our infrastructure indefinitely,” the EMA Head of KPMG Global Infrastructure observes.

Concluding, Connolly reiterates the role that infrastructure will play in delivering a sustainable economic and social recovery in Ireland. “Looking to the future, I have a vision of connected and integrated infrastructure that puts a focus on communities and creating a sustainable way of living and working,” she illustrates.

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Credit: Áras an Uachtaráin

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Machnamh 100 Unveiled and launched by Uachtarán na hÉireann Michael D Higgins, Machnamh 100 is the next phase of the national programme of commemoration.

Machnamh 100 is a dual series of seminars hosted by President Michael D Higgins which will reflect on the centenaries of the War of Independence, the Treaty negotiations, the Civil War and partition. Machnamh is the Irish word for reflection or contemplation. Over the coming year, President Higgins will facilitate discussions exploring specific themes in order to interrogate more fully the contemporary nuances of that time and the enduring legacies.

Building on the President’s previous contributions during the Decade of Centenaries, the events of which have so far ranged from the 1913 Lockout, the First World War, the Rising, the 1918 general election and the first Dáil, the Machnamh 100 initiative is being supported by the Government and RTÉ.

Ethical remembering In leading the centenary commemorations throughout this period, President Higgins has attended many State ceremonies and emphasised his 16

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pursuit of ‘ethical remembering’ and the adoption of ‘narrative hospitality’. This means including marginalised, disenfranchised or excluded voices and being open to alternative perspectives, stories and memories.

“Ethical remembering requires us in particular to shine a light on overlooked figures and events in an attempt to have a more comprehensive, balanced and inclusive perspective on, for example, the independence struggle and the response to it.

“A central dimension of ethical remembering is a refusal of conscious or unconscious amnesia, not only of persons but events. It requires the inclusion of marginalised voices, the disenfranchised, voices from below in our recollections of the past. It must include the essential part played by women in the period that we commemorate, the role of class, and an openness to stories of ‘the Other’, the stranger, the enemy of yesterday,” the President says.

“The time has come for an ethics of

narrative hospitality with its capacity to replace our past entrenchments, offering an openness to others. In doing so, we may nurture memory and remembrance as a strong foundation of a shared, agreed future.”

Conflict and Public Interest series The Conflict and the Public Interest series comprising three seminars focusing on the War of Independence began in December 2020 and will be followed up by two seminars will take place in February and May 2021 respectively.

Following this, a second series will be held later in 2021 and will focus on the Civil War and partition.

In the context of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the inaugural Machnamh 100 seminar, entitled Challenges of Public Commemoration, took place online on 4 December 2020. Focusing on the challenge of commemoration itself, the President led with a reflection titled, ‘Of Centenaries and the Hospitality

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Necessary in Reflecting on Memory, History and Forgiveness’, was delivered by the President.

RTÉ broadcaster and historian John Bowman was invited to chair the initial seminar and professors Ciarán Benson, UCD, Anne Dolan, TCD, Michael Laffan, UCD and University of Amsterdam then responded to the Machnamh address by President Higgins.

Challenges of Public Commemoration seminar Opening his address, President Higgins acknowledges that some centenaries had received a greater degree of recognition, presenting a challenge of understanding how memory and history have been utilised to draw distinction from ‘the other’. However, he asserts that when informed by evidence-based historiography, the act of commemoration can instead be used to transcend differences on this island and indeed these islands.

However, the President is cognisant that the exclusion of narratives fostered a sealed version of history in which “evasive forgetting was as important as remembering”. Indeed, he references an “unavoidable tension between history and memory”.

In considering why we commemorate at all, President Higgins suggests that “unlike history, which is concerned primarily with circumstance, commemoration dwells predominantly in feeling” and commemoration is possibly about “[giving] public feeling to what are otherwise private memories”.

Commemoration, therefore, he contends, presents an opportunity for reflection. It also has an “active component” which encompasses social and cultural functions, such as bonding, educational purposes and even retributive justice.

“Through commemoration, history helps create and nurture active, engaged citizens,” he states.

Acknowledging the inherent risk in remembrance, Higgins argues that if it is to be pluralistic, then long-established foundational myths must be discarded.

The fullness of context, he says, “cannot morally be avoided”.

“An ‘ethical act of memory’ has to be a

“War is always ugly, and posthumous glorification is neither desirable nor morally sound.”

Uachtarán na hÉireann Michael D Higgins critical act of memory, I suggest. There should be an engagement with the issues of context before the act of public memory is transformed to commemoration in any narrow sense. Commemoration is not only a public invitation, it is an act predicated on selection,” the President says.

While conceding that this selection cannot be neutral or objective, he maintains that a “transparency of purpose” and an “honesty of endeavour in keeping the open the possibility of plural interpretations” is realistically achievable.

As such, while commemoration can then function as an aspect of ethical remembering, Higgins advocates discretion with regard to how historical events are marked, “particularly those that may be exploited for narrow political or partisan purposes”. Here, he references warnings from historians against applying “any uncritical transfer of contemporary emotions onto the past”.

This must be balanced with any censoring of “painful events” would be “at best, amoral”.

While the President comprehensively addressing the state-approved violence, reprisals and collective punishment enacted by British forces, he tempers this with recognition of Irish republican violence. “Violence breeds violence,” he states.

“War is always ugly, and posthumous glorification is neither desirable nor morally sound. We must, therefore, I believe, seek to enable all of our citizens to engage with history and commemoration in a way that is inclusive, ethical pluralist and honest, allowing for the evaluation of motives and of actions on all sides with fairness”.

To this end, Higgins is critical of the State’s historical approach to official remembrance in the pursuit of “hegemony

of narrative”. Ethical remembering necessitates the inclusion of those hitherto excluded from ‘official’ history.

For instance, this incorporates experiences of various social classes and of women.

In his summary, Higgins notes that “engaging with the past is not easy”, rather it is a complex interrogation of myriad stories, memories, legacies and emotions.

“As we continue to mark these pivotal moments in our nation’s history, let us together cultivate memory as an instrument for the living so that we may realise a collective memory at peace, unburdened, reconciled; an ethical remembering with its special energy and capacity to replace our past entrenchments, as well as offering an openness to others. Let us strive together to nurture memory and remembrance as a strong foundation of a shared, agreed future.”

Forthcoming seminars The Instincts, Interest, Power and Resistance event in February 2021 will contextualise Ireland in post-war Europe and consider the reaction of the British Empire to the independence struggle and the subsequent search for settlement. In May 2021, the final seminar of the first series, Recovering Imagined Futures, will examine hope, class and gender in the independence struggle.

Speaking about Machnamh 100, as a whole, President Higgins addresses the challenge posed by the decade of centenaries to honestly, authentically, pluralistically engage with Ireland’s shared past and in a manner which might “assist a healing of conflicts that cannot be forgotten”. Each of the complex events being recalled, he suggests, are integral to the narrative which has shaped modern Ireland.

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New ban on co-living ordered Credit: Finna Fáil

said. “Given the unprecedented nature of these developments, I have concerns that the scale of the developments is moving away from the niche quantity of units the concept originally aimed for to a significantly larger role in the housing system.

“I also believe the location of a substantial number of the potential co-living sites is not in keeping with the high-density urban centres originally envisaged wand that inappropriate locations away rom the core city centre have undermined the concept.”

The Department have said that an updated guidance document on the topic is now being finalised. Provisions that allowed for co-living developments were introduced by then Minister for Housing, Eoghan Murphy TD in 2018 when he

A de facto ban on new co-living

published the document Sustainable

developments has been issued by Minister

New Apartments Guidelines for Planning

for Housing, Darragh O’Brien TD, with concerns growing over the number of such developments in the housing system.

Urban Housing: Design Standards for Authorities. Murphy, however, has said that O’Brien was “of the view there are enough developments in the system to meet anticipated demand and so he is right to act” and that “co-living was only ever intended to play a limited and niche role in the housing market”.

Pressure had mounted on O’Brien to act in some way over the co-living issue after

The decision was made by Minister O’Brien following the submission of a report by the Planning Division within his Department of Housing, Local Government on the topic of co-living.

Upon announcement of the de facto ban, O’Brien said that the decision was the correct one due to the number of co-living planning applications and permissions to date being “comparatively high in the international context”.

Some of the concerns raised with the report include the view that the developments had become less niche and had begun to play a greater role in the country’s housing provision, with many potential sites outside of Dublin city

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centre. To date, a total of 14 planning applications for shared accommodation schemes, all located in County Dublin, with over 2,100 bed spaces have been made.

In accordance with the report’s findings, the Minister issued the de facto ban by amending the 2018 Planning Guidelines to restrict all future commercial co-living development in Ireland. The ban will only be applied to future developments as amendments to planning guidelines cannot be applied retroactively.

“I believe the number of applications and permissions to date are comparatively high in the international context,” O’Brien

Sinn Féin housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin TD had tabled a Private Member’s Bill that aimed to remove the law which allows minister to alter planning laws without a vote from the Oireachtas and remove from building standards the coliving and built-to-rent guidelines, thus banning such developments.

“All departments should be built to one standard,” Ó Broin said. “No one deserves to live in a gentrified co-working space, 12 metres of personal living spaces. If we want people to rent longterm. We need to make sure people have the same standard as people who buy apartments.”

Credit: Merrion Street

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OECD BEPS Inclusive Framework latest The global economy has become increasingly globalised and digitalised, creating challenges for the international tax system. Consensus agreement on the two-pillared Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) 2.0 project which seeks to address these challenges could be reached by summer 2021.

With political and technical challenges outstanding, consensus on the OECD Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) has not been reached in 2020 as initially intended.

Instead, virtual public consultation meetings on the Pillar One and Pillar Two blueprints will be held in January 2021 and the Inclusive Framework on BEPS has indicated that it will move swiftly to ensure that the project will conclude in mid-2021.

Companies may engage in Base Erosion and Profit Shifting in an effort to erode taxable income and reduce tax liability.

One example of BEPS activity is moving profits from a high tax jurisdiction to a comparatively low tax jurisdiction. The OECD estimates that the revenue lost to BEPS totals between $100 billion and $240 billion each year.

Rationale The initial Inclusive Framework on BEPS is an OECD project aimed at mitigating this tax avoidance. Led by the OECD Secretariat, it is a collaboration between 135 countries to determine considerable changes to tax policies and practices, providing coherent international tax rules and transparency.

Traditionally, the allocation of taxable

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profits and associated taxing rights was based where goods and services were produced, which often corresponded with where substantive economic activity occurs. However, a combination of globalisation and digitalisation has meant that production and consumption are often completely detached.

Beginning in early 2019, the BEPS 2.0 project aims to mitigate the tax challenges posed by a digitalised economy. The ongoing project was initially delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic and complicated by the Trump administration’s decision to pause US participation. The US may reengage under the Biden presidency. In the absence of the US, the EU could unilaterally change its own tax regime and adopt a digital tax. However, any unilateral approach has the potential to create tax divergence and uncertainty between countries.

The rationale informing the second iteration of the BEPS negotiations is the allocation of shares of taxable profit based on the geographical location of a company’s substantive value-added activity and the implementation of a global minimum effective tax rate. The 2.0 project is primarily focused on the challenges of taxing digital companies and seeks to establish a “consensus-

based solution” that aligns efforts to address the challenge of the digital economy.

This could have significant repercussions for Ireland as a country with one of the highest rates of corporation tax revenue from foreign-owned firms. For instance, in 2019, one-fifth of the overall tax base (€11 billion) was generated by corporation tax.

Pillars The two pillars of the current BEPS proposals are described in the Inclusive Framework cover Statement as offering a “solid basis for future agreement”.

These pillars are: 1. Redefining profit allocation rules: Relocating a share of profit from where a company is headquartered to where commercial activity takes place.

2. Implementing global minimum effective tax rules: Taxing profits currently taxed below a minimum rate.

Impact In 2016, the first round of BEPS negotiations produced 15 actions for governments to implement to ensure that profits were taxed where economic

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“Further work is needed at international level before final agreements can be reached. What is certain, however, is that change is inevitable.”

Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe TD

activity took place and added value generated. Multinational companies responded by relocating intellectual property assets from no-tax jurisdictions to low-tax jurisdictions. Ireland was a beneficiary.

If implemented, BEPS 2.0 is likely to result in an increase in global tax revenue as some corporation taxing rights migrate from low tax jurisdictions to high tax jurisdictions. According to the OECD Secretariat’s projections based on the current set of unagreed pillars there could be an annual increase of between $60 billion and $100 billion in tax revenues or 4 per cent of global corporate tax revenues. Countries which have become hubs for multinational corporations, such as Ireland, are likely to see tax revenue decrease.

Likewise, given the tax incentives in Ireland to decrease the effective tax rate (such as the R&D tax credit), a reduction in tax differentials between jurisdictions could render Ireland’s current corporation tax regime less attractive to multinationals. On the other hand, if the global minimum corporation tax rate is higher than the Irish rate, it could produce an increase in revenue. Though this is tempered by the fact that a higher rate could also make Ireland a less attractive option for FDI. It is not yet clear whether the level for the minimum effective tax rate would be set globally or on the basis of individual jurisdictions. Currently, Ireland’s effective corporation tax rate in Ireland is 12 per cent, just below the statutory rate of 12.5 per cent on traded profits.

Finance Minister In his Budget 2021 speech, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe TD reaffirmed commitment to Ireland’s 12.5 per cent rate of corporation tax and indicated that he would publish an update on Ireland’s Corporation Tax Roadmap. The roadmap, he said, would take into

consideration the reports published by the OECD BEPS Inclusive Framework in October 2020.

“Further work is needed at international level before final agreements can be reached,” he said, adding: “What is certain, however, is that change is inevitable.

“Agreement at the OECD would present challenges for Ireland as changes to the international tax framework would see a reduction in the level of profits taxable here. Failure to reach agreement at the OECD would also have negative consequences for the Exchequer.”

Donohoe asserted that work to determine the direction of the global and European tax landscape will conclude in 2021. In this context, the Minister outlined that he was amending legislation to ensure that all tangible assets acquired after budget day (13 October 2020) are fully included within the scope of balancing charge rules.

Taking immediate legal effect, the new rules “will ensure that our tax regime for intellectual property, together with the broader corporation tax regime, remains competitive, legitimate and sustainable”.

Previously, speaking at the 2019 Global Tax Policy Conference hosted by Harvard Kennedy School and the Irish Tax Institute, Donohoe had warned that change was coming to the international tax system. Then, he indicated that as a small, open economy, a consensus based international tax framework is vital for Ireland.

Emphasising the need to avoid unilateral action and instead achieve certainty and stability through a sustainable and globally agreed solution, Donohoe noted that the BEPS Inclusive Framework is “unquestionably the right forum for these discussions”. Unilateral taxes, the Finance Minister suggested, are likely to exacerbate global trade tensions and damage cross-border trade and investment.

Examining the Pillar One proposals, Donohoe outlined several desirable criteria. These include: following the principle of aligning tax rights with value creation; minimising disruption to international corporate tax framework; basing it on existing transfer pricing rules; ensuring that the majority of profits remain taxable in exporting countries; and avoiding disproportionate impact.

On the Pillar Two proposals, the Minister asserted that he does not support measures which are aimed at ending “legitimate and fair tax competition”.

“Competitiveness is not just a prerogative of large countries,” he said.

Any solution must be “underpinned by a sound, intellectually principled basis” and also “be workable in practice”, he warned.

European response In late November 2020, the European Council approved conclusions for a “comprehensive assessment of the main tax policy issues to be addressed over coming years”. Within these conclusions, the Council emphasised that “fair and effective taxation systems in member states are central to the sustainable recovery of the EU” in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Welcoming progress made by the OECD Inclusive Framework on BEPS, the Council reiterated its support for efforts to reach consensus agreement on an update to the international corporate tax framework.

The European Council will assess global agreement on BEPS in March 2021 and has asked the European Commission to “engage on that basis in the relevant preparatory work in the Council on the way forward in line with EU law, in order to address the tax challenges of the digital economy, including in the absence of international consensus by mid-2021”.

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Transforming the future of public services through technology EY Ireland hosted a virtual round table discussion with experts from across the public sector, applying their experience and insight to examine the transformation of public services through technology.

What are the key drivers of public service transformation?

Gary Comiskey EY gets to look at this with an external lens and by working with multiple public bodies. There are four key drivers at the moment: digital development and the desire to better use technology to supply

services back to the citizen; citizen expectations which were key to our work with the Department of Justice; value for money or doing things more efficiently and freeing up key people to do more value-adding tasks; and a push for sustainability, to drive the climate action agenda. Indeed, we’re beginning to see more organisations place a focus on sustainability. One example is the work

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we’re doing with Transport Infrastructure Ireland in relation to light rail infrastructure.

Finn de Brí I would categorise the drivers as being efficiency and effectiveness demands. In the political arena, the public has a demand for particular products, for example, transport or healthcare. This precipitate efficiency demand, because if the budget isn’t increased to meet that demand, the key driver is optimisation of your budget. The effectiveness demand requires organisations to deliver better outcomes, changing the role of education, healthcare or the Oireachtas. You can bring about some of these changes with technology, but others aren’t technological. For instance, breaking

Roundtable Participants 1.

down silos in organisations to move people towards a digital aggregation of services.

One of the key things for the HSE is access to our services and the ability to meet demand. We have a finite capacity and while we are incrementally growing that capacity, the demand for our services is increasing. We have a record number of patients on our waiting lists, so we need to look at alternative and innovative ways to deliver our services which will include the use of emerging technology, from tele-messaging, virtual healthcare and patient portals, giving the patients information to look after themselves.

Another consideration is trust and confidence in our service using open communication and by listening to the public. We need the technology to enable that. Our ability to be responsive to changing environments, especially in the pandemic, wouldn’t be possible without real-time data and an understanding of how incidence rates are moving, tracking and tracing and so forth. We are using the data and becoming an evidence-based organisation.

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Finn de Brí is Chief Information Officer for the Houses of the Oireachtas, with responsibility for the Oireachtas Digital Transformation, which is a multiannual transformation, incorporating seven programmes of development and over 100 projects. Prior to this, Finn was head of taxes and customs software application development in the Office of the Revenue Commissioners. He holds a PhD in Information Systems from Trinity College Dublin where he researched and developed an eight-stage maturity model which describes and predicts how information systems in large government organisations develop over time.

Yvonne Goff

Gary Comiskey Gary Comiskey is responsible for EY’s Government and Health Consulting practice and leads a wide range of complex transformation projects across several clients. Gary has more than 20 years’ experience and has worked extensively with the health sector, government departments and state agencies. He supported the implementation of electronic health record solutions, the design and build of government shared service solutions and the development of business cases, strategies and operating models. He also served as a board member and member of the audit and risk committee for two state bodies.

3.

Yvonne Goff Having previously worked as the HSE’s Chief Clinical Information Officer, Yvonne Goff now works as Director of the Integrated Information Service and Scheduled Care Transformation Programme. She has more than 20 years’ experience in healthcare as well as significant experience in leading technology-enabled transformation programmes. She was recently awarded a fellowship of the Analytics Institute of Ireland at the 2020 Analytics and AI Awards for her contribution to the sector.

John Hogan Coming from the Department of Finance, our drivers are centred around designing policy options and then the successful implementation of the policy choices, in line with the Programme for Government and our own strategy. We collaborate through innovation, simplification and the use of technology, not just within the Department but across the public sector, trying to deliver better experiences for users and at the same time improving data availability. We are very much a people-centred organisation and when we look at transformation, it’s hugely dependent on staff and their ability to do what we need them to do. This has emphasised the importance of learning and development and we have invested heavily in that to broaden the knowledge and skills base. As we have done so, we have had to find new and innovative ways to implement pandemic responses using mechanisms that we didn’t anticipate using, things like Revenue’s systems to disburse Government wage subsidy schemes. We all worked in collaboration to ensure that this happened at a pace that was not necessarily associated with

Finn de Brí

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John Hogan John Hogan is the Assistant Secretary General in the Department of Finance with responsibility for tax policy. As the lead official in the Department’s Tax Division, he is responsible for advising the Minister for Finance on the development of equitable, efficient and effective taxation policies. John is centrally involved in the annual Budget and Finance Bill process. He has held a number of positions in the Department of Finance throughout his career. He was previously Assistant Secretary General with responsibility for banking policy in the Financial Services Division and has served as the Financial Services Counsellor in the Permanent Representation of Ireland to the European Union as well as holding posts in a number of government departments. He is an executive coach.

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Deirdre McDonnell Deirdre McDonnell leads the Major Operations Division in the Department of Education. Her team leads on ICT services and shared services for the Department and wider education and training sector. Deirdre has held a number of senior management roles in the Department including the development of strategy, policy and legislation. Deirdre has a degree in public administration and a masters in strategic management and planning.

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“We can get technology to do almost anything. Engineering is the easy bit. More challenging is the change and transformation of people and organisations.”

Finn de Brí, Chief Information Officer, Houses of the Oireachtas the public sector, but given the situation it was necessary, proportionate and transformational.

Deirdre McDonnell Data is a key driver for us, both in terms of our customers needing to update their own data but also in how we access that data at an aggregate level and feed it into policy. When you talk about agility, you see what the HSE has done in terms of Covid and that has been really impressive. The Department has internal and external customers and other stakeholders’ expectations. Efficiency is obviously a big issue and policy is a key driver in our area as well, in terms of translating it into implementation. That can have different effects, be it organisational change or rule changes that implement new schemes.

journey has a fixed destination and a lot of what we’re doing is more of an evolution in how the public sector can and should operate. At times, that evolution could be better characterised as a revolution, perhaps no more so than in the last number of months. If I think of one major step change in how we operate and conduct business, it is the transition to remote working. Previously, that would have been marked by years of proposals, consultation and guidance. Yet, out of necessity, it happened overnight. That evolution will continue, perhaps in a different direction, as we move from predominantly working from home to a more blended experience. The challenge will be to find new ways through which we continue to develop teamwork, foster collaboration and encourage innovation in more imaginative structures.

How far into the transformation

Finn de Brí

journey are public services in

Organisations develop over time, but at different rates and for different reasons.

For that reason, the progress of transformation of the public sector as a whole is hard to define. That being said, the signs indicate that there is good

Ireland?

John Hogan I see it as less of a journey because a

progress right across the board. There is a set number of public sector organisations, such as Revenue, the Department of Social Protection, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Education, that are galloping ahead, while others are less so.

When I came into the Houses of the Oireachtas Service, the extent of IT was very rudimentary and, in many ways, in need of a lot of remediation. I have looked at parliaments right across the world and identified the same scenario. Within national parliaments there is an aversion to change and it’s difficult for them to move forward. If a new technology automates a process and it is apparent in the chamber, it will be on the news agenda the following day. People are rightfully concerned about that because a mistake could have a huge impact on a piece of legislation, for example. There are many reasons why organisations either have or haven’t moved forward.

Gary Comiskey I agree that transformation is an ongoing process that isn’t necessarily defined by a destination. One thing I know for sure is

“From a transformation perspective, our journey has escalated enormously because of Covid-19 and subsequent investment.”

Yvonne Goff, Director, Integrated Information Service and Scheduled Care Transformation Programme, HSE 24

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“Data is fundamental to decision-making.

Traditionally, we might have relied on more static data sources but there is now momentum behind real-time alternatives” Gary Comiskey, Government and Health Associate Partner, EY Ireland that if you think you’ve completed transformation then you’re mistaken because new change is always required.

Across the public sector, there are pockets in which we have seen significant advancement and there are others in which progress still needs to be made.

Deirdre McDonnell While people might imagine that transformation is a ‘big bang’ moment, in reality a lot of change is incremental.

Many of the changes which have the most significant impact on the ground originate in relatively small projects.

Simultaneously though, there are transformative milestones, such as the Digital Postbox or the measures implemented to mitigate Covid-19, some of which will be permanent. There are different layers of change and they’re each important.

Yvonne Goff From a transformation perspective, our journey has escalated enormously because of Covid-19 and subsequent investment. For two years I had been building policy strategy to develop a chief data officer-type function within the HSE to ensure the HSE becomes an evidencebased organisation. One of the critical components was the delivery of a single consolidated data lake. While there was consensus that it was a great idea, there was no huge investment in terms of money, effort or people. However, since March 2020, this changed and we now have a fully automated data system with a data lake, consolidating around 80 different data sources within the HSE. This investment in data and insights has

been transformational and hugely significant, especially from a cultural perspective. For example, our meetings are now opening with people thinking and talking data-first.

What are the most significant obstacles on this journey?

Deirdre McDonnell Investment is essential. It costs money to simultaneously change and keep the show on the road. Building up your team is also important because there are different skillsets required, whether it’s project management or data migration.

Projects need the right people with the right skills to deliver, especially if you’re working at speed. Simultaneously, you need leadership that wants and supports the change; without this the team won’t get through the difficult times. The technology available can pretty much do everything we need to do, so it’s about how you get it set up and working. Many projects we are working on involve a significant change management element rather than a significant technology challenge.

John Hogan Post-pandemic, there will be a different approach and attitude to how we view investment. With any transformational project, it’s about how you get people to explain the benefit in the way that is accessible for policymakers and users.

From the outset, we really need to be clear what the goal of a project is. The other thing that comes to the fore, as we try to get more citizens online, is data

security. We must ensure that there is confidence in government systems being robust enough to protect data. In addition, given that we are expecting much more business and governance to be done online, we have to be mindful of inclusivity. We have to ensure that there is an opportunity for citizens to interact with a digital public service without discrimination by economic circumstances, age, disability, etc.

Finn de Brí We can get technology to do almost anything. Engineering is the easy bit.

More challenging is the change and transformation of people and organisations. When we talk about change, I’m thinking of the whole organisation. I don’t just see it as single pockets; it must be holistic. Having the right people and the right vision is the most important element. You can’t just say, “let’s do digital”, you have to understand where your organisation is going and why. The transformation for Revenue is different to the Oireachtas, which is different to the HSE. The strategies for each area are long-term. My area is probably five to eight years, but for the HSE it’s probably longer. The real obstacles then are people who don’t want to change. People don’t change for so many reasons, they might feel their job is under threat or that any change will precipitate a mistake which is attributed to them. To say people are lazy misrepresents the good nature of people, they are anxious and enthusiastic to change but they have reservations. It’s about creating that environment that allows them to change.

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“With any transformational project, it’s about how you get people to explain the benefit in the way that is accessible for policymakers and users.”

John Hogan, Assistant Secretary, Department of Finance Yvonne Goff The HSE is vast, complex and is digitally immature for a number of reasons. One of the reasons is that we have diversified our investments rather than selecting a small number of big projects for everyone to get behind. One of the challenges we have is procurement because we have an extra layer of DPER and peer review for anything that’s over €5 million and then it’s hard for people to not feel secure about investment if we don’t go with the large known vendors that typical takes years to roll out. We need to foster a more agile approach to investing in technology.

Open platforms and growing module by module. An additional change is that the public has an expectation that you buy technology and it works straight away, but typically there is a lot of customisation for us so we’re challenged with selling to our funders that we need to invest in releasing clinician time invest and in change management. We also need to invest in the skilling of subject matter experts who can translate the business needs into IT solutions, that’s very important.

Gary Comiskey That ability to balance business as usual and transformation is so important. It’s very difficult to take a nurse or doctor off a ward to design a new IT solution but it’s necessary, otherwise the solution won’t be successful. The capability, skills and experience you need around change management are in short supply and there’s a real need to have that frontline expertise there. You need to be accessible as well, it’s not a one size-fitsall. You have to think about other cohorts

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of the community; some big businesses can probably leave market sections behind if they think it’s apt for them, but the public sector can’t. You can’t just say you don’t get healthcare if you don’t have a smartphone.

How important is data when making decisions?

Yvonne Goff We need the data to plan our organisation and to develop our policies as without it, we’re flying blind. We absolutely need to know what’s happening, where there are any problems or challenges and how to address them in a manner that is responsive and focused on continuous quality improvement. It’s a cycle and data is part of that cycle. We can’t understand our investments by measuring objectives against the subsequent impact without data. For the HSE, the value of data is enormous, and we’ve proved that through the IIS Covid dashboards. We use the data operationally to determine, for instance, that a particular testing centre in a particular county needs additional staff.

Without it we could not respond in an agile way. It’s critical for us.

Deirdre McDonnell Having accurate and consistent data is absolutely fundamental to our long-term planning. Much of the data that we use in the Department of Education informs forecasting, budgeting, planning and understanding what is happening in the wider education system as well as what we think is going to happen in coming decades. What the data tells, us in relation to learning outcomes or where additional school places are required,

then determines our policy and investment priorities.

John Hogan Data is crucial to how we operate in the Department of Finance. Many key economic data metrics are used to inform our budgetary process and all of our economic forecasting. Traditionally, we have relied upon data that we have either developed internally or data that is sourced from the CSO, the Central Bank and international sources like the European Commission and the OECD. However, in recent months we have begun to look at other sources of data to better understand what’s happening in the economy in real-time. For example, mobility data and payments data produced by the likes of Google and Revolut has been made available to us, enabling a better understanding of what is happening in the economy now as opposed to the traditional sources which have been subject to a time lag.

Gary Comiskey Data is fundamental to decision-making.

Traditionally, we might have relied on more static data sources but there is now momentum behind real-time alternatives such as payment information. This is exemplified by the volume of traffic recorded by the M50 toll; information that now acts as an economic indicator. My colleagues in EY have been working with the Department of the Taoiseach to construct a ‘vital signs’ dashboard for Ireland which incorporates key metrics such as transport figures and economic data. Meanwhile, my colleagues in the UK completed research which estimated that the value of NHS data alone is worth

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“Projects need the right people with the right skills to deliver, especially if you’re working at speed. Simultaneously, you need leadership that wants and supports the change.”

Deirdre McDonnell, Assistant Secretary, Department of Education approximately £10 billion. If this value can be captured and harnessed, it can actually drive dividends for government, though obviously there are sensitivities that must be considered in relation to how that might work.

Finn de Brí Data in the Houses of the Oireachtas Service is a different kettle of fish; it’s not numerics, value for money or revenue, but it is open data. Oireachtas data is about opening up what our members do for us in the chambers through the democratic process. To a large extent, there is an opacity as to what the Oireachtas delivers for citizens. However, when you go in there and see the remarkable work that they do on our behalf, any cynicism drops away. The transformation is to open that data up for citizens and for democracy, to show how the organisation works. Also, showcasing our members of parliament and what they do, will allow citizens to change their understanding of the Oireachtas as a pillar of the State.

Suddenly, people can see exactly what is happening in Leinster House, without the mediation of a small number of journalists, and draw their own assessments of the work that members do for them, ultimately informing them at election time.

What are the transformative technologies that you are most excited about within your remit?

Finn de Brí As a technologist, you could easily jump in and say AI is really important and that

would be the fashionable thing to say.

And while we will use AI to help with translation to Irish and automatic speech recognition [ASR] to capture debates, very often it’s the simple applications that excite me the most. Technology is such that the simplest application can offer the best value for the business and therefore can get you more excited than anything else, it doesn’t have to be a big blockbuster. For example, everyone loves the motor tax online application. They love Revenue’s online service too. Many of these applications are not complex; simple technology delivers real value for people.

Deirdre McDonnell Anything that makes the lives of the team and customers easier is interesting to me.

Collaborative tools are important for project work and facilitating remote teamwork. Everybody is a bit fatigued with online calls but anything we can leverage for online collaboration is great. I think we’re all interested in data analytics and what it can do. This doesn’t have to be a big bang but anything that improves how we access and use data; those are the interesting areas and there are some very exciting developments in that area.

John Hogan If we reflect on how far we’ve moved in the public sector over the last decade, away from paper towards the likes of EPQs and e-correspondence, without such tools it’s hard to think of how we would have managed to maintain business continuity through the pandemic if we hadn’t already begun to undertake this transition. Looking ahead, there are additional sources of data we can harvest

to allow us to understand the data in realtime. There are other things happening that can offer real opportunities for transformation. The Financial Management Shared Service under the National Shared Services Office and similar large projects are difficult to implement and this one is taking a bit of time but it offers huge opportunities in terms of giving us ways in which we can improve and harness our payment processing and financial decision-making.

There are two huge challenges facing us, one immediate and one more long-term.

The first one is Brexit, how we’re going to use technology to deal with a fundamental change in our relationship with the UK, such as the smooth import of goods and services into Ireland. The other one is climate change. The sort of transformative technologies that we need to implement in order to deal with the challenge we have is both daunting and exciting in equal measure.

Gary Comiskey There was a lot of time spent by people running around the departments with folders in their hands before EPQ was introduced and so those small things definitely shouldn’t be overlooked, bringing these technologies together is really important. The big one that really excites me is electronic health records.

I’ve had my own recent experience with the health system and it never ceases to amaze me, the volume of time and paper used up, as well as the degree of effort required of the staff in order to compensate that. If I had a magic wand that would be my one thing; an integrated healthcare system where you can turn up anywhere and your records are there.

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Left: Courtown beach in bygone days. Credit: North beach at Courtown 1967, Eugene Doyle.

Right: Courtown beach in recent times. Credit: Patrick Comerford, 2015.

Chris Phillips

Conor Murphy

Valuing place is critical to effective climate action The environmental disruption of valued places through climate change or adaptation plans can have a profound impact on local communities. Chris Phillips and Conor Murphy from the Department of Geography at Maynooth University assert that strengthened public consultation, participatory governance and codevelopment of adaptation plans are critical to minimising such disruption.

When we think of the impacts of climate change, we often think of issues such as rising sea levels, stronger storms and more intense rainfall and associated flooding. We may even think of the direct impacts of these for people in harm’s way. Not so central to our thinking is how place, and people’s relationship with place may be impacted both by the direct manifestations of climate change and by the strategies we implement to adapt.

Less considered still are the potential consequences of these changing relationships for our capacity to adapt and for individual and community health and wellbeing.

Place attachment: Dependence and identity Place attachment describes the emotional connections that people have to particular landscapes that emerge through personal experience in an environment, its natural qualities, the cultural values that develop and define a

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place, recreational and livelihood opportunities, among other things. Many have argued that the bonds people develop with place are underpinned by the role of place in shaping individual identity and sense of self. Others show that dependence on place develops from livelihoods, recreation and emotional wellbeing over time. It is no surprise that place attachment tends to be greater in those how have lived in an area for a long time.

Research has clearly shown that, when place is threatened, place attachment and associated emotional bonds can rally communities around a cause, encourage adaptive action and place protective measures; a real benefit for successful adaptation. However, place attachment can be a double-edged sword. The same research also shows that for place attachment to be a positive influence on adaptation outcomes, individuals and communities must see the governance process as fair and have a voice in decision-making that affects place.

Otherwise, threats to place can result in contestation, emotional stress and a decline in wellbeing. Moreover, when place is disrupted or lost the impacts on people can be profound.

‘Solastalgia’ and environmental grief ‘Solastalgia’, coined by the philosopher Glen Albrecht in 2003, is a condition that describes how individuals lack the ability to acquire solace from an environment they are attached to, often resulting in feelings of grief, distress and powerlessness following environmental disruption. Solastalgia undermines personal and community identity, belonging and sense of control and has been related to a breakdown between an individual’s identity and their environment.

Over the past decade, a growing body of research has shown that solastalgia and resultant environmental distress, melancholia and feelings of grief can

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arise following unwanted transformations of valued places through activities such as resource extraction, extreme weather events and natural disasters. Loss of place and feelings of solastalgia threaten wellbeing, often bringing negative emotional responses that can influence engagement with effective coping responses and paralysis or in action towards negatively perceived environmental change.

Climate change threatens place, whether through rising sea levels, coastal erosion or more frequent inundation. Moreover, the actions we take to adapt to changing risks also have the potential to break bonds with place through building flood walls and other structures or forced relocation. At Maynooth University we have been exploring how place disruption is affecting those living on the frontline in the hope of developing insights that make these issues more central to adaptation planning. The following provides a snapshot of two case studies we have been exploring.

Climate Action that is sensitive to place Our research is showing that attachment to place is central to how communities navigate environmental changes.

Distress, solastalgia and contestation can result from threats to and loss of place that negatively impact well-being, influencing the ability of individuals and communities to cope with and adapt to ongoing environmental change.

In addition to direct threats from climate change, the adaptation plans we implement to counter these may also be viewed as disruptive and lead to community opposition. Research is showing that strengthened public consultation, participatory governance and co-development of adaptation plans are critical to minimising place disruption.

Accounting for place attachment, strengthening consultation and local participation may foster resilience, yield fairer and more effective outcomes and protect wellbeing.

Conor Murphy is a professor at the Department of Geography at Maynooth University.

Chris Philips is an Irish Research Council-funded scholar completing his PhD at Maynooth University.

Courtown Harbour, Wexford: Place loss and solastagia Courtown Harbour, in the sunny southeast has always been known for its beautiful expansive blue flag beach. It has attracted many tourists over the decades and provided a hub of activity for the local economy.

Over recent years, Courtown has been severely impacted by coastal erosion, losing its beach, its blue flag status and undergoing significant transformation due to the instalment of rock armour.

Instead of an expanse of sand there now lies an expanse of rock. Winter storms continue to batter the soft coastline resulting in the area being deemed high risk for future coastal erosion.

We have been working with the local community to explore if and how loss of the beach has manifested in feelings of solastalgia. We are finding that a large portion of the residents of Courtown and Riverchapel are experiencing high levels of solastalgia linked to loss of the beach.

Loss of such a valued place has greatly impacted recreation opportunities, family and social meetings, tourism and even childhood memories.

Many blame the installation of rock armour for the dramatic transformation and believe that they had little voice in determining the adaptive actions taken. Residents indicate that they experience distress, a sense of powerlessness and deep sadness at the sight of this negative transformation of place with negative outlooks for the future widely expressed. Such outlooks and sentiments are known to be associated with a decrease in capacity to adapt. Those with stronger levels of place attachment tend to be most negatively impacted.

While Courtown is just one example, it is representative of the many small coastal communities that will face threats to place with climate change.

“Climate change threatens place, whether through rising sea levels, coastal erosion or more frequent inundation. Moreover, the actions we take to adapt to changing risks also have the potential to break bonds with place‌â€?

Clontarf, Dublin: Contestation when place is forgotten Clontarf in Dublin has been the subject of long-standing contestation surrounding the development of coastal flood defences. Research, conducted in 2018, shows that place attachment and its lack of consideration lie at the heart of ongoing debates.

The promenade in Clontarf is central to a deep routed place attachment in the community, central to the identity of the town itself and many residents. It is also a highly valued space by many people outside of the community. The vast majority of residents recognise the need for flood defences but are less supportive where flood defences threatened the form and function of the promenade.

Challenges in Clontarf, stem from a breakdown in participatory processes which become particularly acute when place attachment is high. While Dublin City Council followed due diligence, the opportunities for public engagement in our planning legislation may be insufficient when adaptive interventions happen in valued places.

Individuals with stronger place attachment are likely to place greater weight on participatory processes. When these break down and place-based identities and meanings are not given sufficient attention distrust, place protective emotions and contestation take over, often miring adaptive processes in long, drawn out arguments despite the growing flood risk. Such barriers can be long lasting and difficult to overcome.

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Decent work and decent wages: Louise O’Reilly TD In its general election manifesto and subsequent alternative budget proposal for 2021, Sinn Féin sought to position itself as the party that would rebalance the economy, stand up for workers and deliver a fair recovery. Ciarán Galway engages with the party’s spokesperson on enterprise, trade, employment and workers’ rights Louise O'Reilly TD to discuss support for SMEs and workers.

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First elected to the Dáil in 2016, Louise O’Reilly was a representative before she was in representative politics, having previously worked as a fulltime trade union organiser for over a decade.

O’Reilly was “born a republican socialist” with strong family roots in trade unionism. Her father was also a trade union official, while her grandmother and grandfather were shop stewards with the Irish Women Workers’ Union and the the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union respectively. “It’s in my blood,” she adds.

O’Reilly regards the Dáil as a platform “to bring forward issues which are pertinent to workers and working families” on a national level, something she feels was lacking in the political discourse.

“There was a lot of talk about working people but not an awful lot of interaction with working people. One of the things that makes Sinn Féin different to other political parties is that we have that

the experience of working people hardwired into it,” McDonald said.

are definitely a party that supports business.

“At a time when work is uncertain, money is tight and people’s sense of their economic future is very much in the balance, you couldn’t have a stronger champion than Louise O’Reilly. That’s why I moved her.”

“It would be ridiculous for a party that has a focus on workers and workers’ rights in the way that we do to be antibusiness. We support decent businesses and decent employers and ensuring that businesses thrive because if there’s no business, there’s no work,” she insists.

In her trade union role, O’Reilly worked for several years as the national nursing organiser with SIPTU and represented other grades of healthcare workers. She was also a member of ICTU’s Public Services Committee.

“I did enjoy working in health. It’s an area that I have a grá for, but this is also something that I have been raised with and I’ve had all my life. Now, it’s very worrying and disturbing for me, that someone who holds anti-worker views, someone who is very right wing in the way that Leo Varadkar is, now holds the jobs portfolio.

Discussing Sinn Féin’s relationship with business lobby groups such as Ibec, the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association (ISME) and others, O’Reilly alludes to “warm relations”. “It doesn’t mean we agree on everything and we shouldn’t. In fact, if there is any politician in [Leinster House] that tells you they agree line-for-line with every single agenda that is put forward by every single lobby group then they’re spoofing because you can’t. But it does mean that you find those common areas,” she emphasises.

“It’s very worrying and disturbing for me, that someone who holds anti-worker views, someone who is very right wing in the way that Leo Varadkar is, now holds the jobs portfolio.” genuine connection and that informs our activism and the work that we do,” she asserts.

Role change Until June 2020, the Skerries native was Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on health. It was a role in which she was widely thought to have excelled. Now, O’Reilly is the party’s spokesperson on enterprise, trade, employment and workers’ rights and is tasked with man-marking Tánaiste Leo Varadkar TD who leads the portfolio.

When asked about her redeployment to undertake that task, she laughs: “I was delighted. I was very pleased.”

Speaking with eolas Magazine in August 2020, Sinn Féin party leader Mary Lou McDonald indicated that she could “place Louise O’Reilly in any portfolio, and she would shine”. “I am very conscious of the fact that the model which is adopted for economic recovery and economic advancement must have

“Our party leader decided that it would be good to have someone who has a good grounding in workers’ rights and workers’ rights issues to mark that particular individual,” the Dublin Fingal TD explains.

Business Prior to General Election 2020, Ibec CEO Danny McCoy suggested that if the Sinn Féin manifesto was fully implemented, it would have “grave implications”.

Following the results, however, McCoy indicated that having “seen them in action in the North”, the party’s instincts “are not that mad when it comes to business”.

Regardless, Sinn Féin is often characterised by its political opponents as a ‘high-tax, anti-business’ party; something which the enterprise spokesperson dismisses. “No, we’re not at all. We’re a fair tax party. I don’t think anyone should object to fair taxation. We

Support for SMEs A key objective of Sinn Féin’s ‘manifesto for change’ ahead of General Election 2020 was ‘rebalancing the economy’.

“We want to bring a focus on a different type of economy,” O’Reilly maintains, adding: “A focus on workers’ co-ops and more indigenous industries, less about FDI which is very important and has its place but actually, most people in Ireland work for SMEs and those are very often the people who get left out of the equation because quite frankly they’re too busy working to be lobbying and advocating. They need a voice and they deserve a voice in the Dáil chamber as well.

“We’re marking an individual who has no regard for workers’ rights as far as I’m concerned and, indeed, favours big business over SMEs and family-run enterprises. He needs to be marked and marked strongly.”

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Teachta O’Reilly maintains that government should be a driver of local industry. “The Government should be a driver of local industry and it’s very often not. That needs to change. I think we need to have a social clause in government contracts.

“You’ll often hear, particularly among right wing commentators, that governments can’t create jobs. They can’t but they can create the atmosphere for decent jobs to be fostered and I think that that is something that we need to refocus on.”

To support indigenous SMEs in the domestic market Sinn Féin has proposed the establishment of a Irish Enterprise Agency. “We’ve put forward an idea to the Tánaiste which is like an IDA for small business and I know that he’s considering it,” she says.

On the development of a worker cooperative sector, O’Reilly’s party emphasises the resilience, productivity and social benefits among European counterparts and wants to establish a Worker Co-operative Development Unit modelled on Co-operative Development Scotland.

“Workers’ co-ops were thriving back in the mid-to-late-90s. There was a worker’s

co-op unit within government and there was a big push on getting workers’ coops up and running. When everyone is invested in success, it really works.

back of that, getting the use of facilities and all the rest of it.”

“But what you have to do is ensure that people have the resources, the education and the skills to put that together. Then you have to support them. That’s something that can be done through the Local Enterprise Offices’ leadership programmes and very much at local level,” she explains.

On workers’ rights, the Sinn Féin enterprise spokesperson contends that “this government has done nothing”.

“They don’t have a workers’ rights agenda and they don’t have a workers’ rights focus. I think sometimes they talk as if they should be threatened by workers’ rights. I think workers’ rights and decent wages are a good thing.

Innovation To establish a more innovative economy, O’Reilly suggests “we need to look at where the opportunities exist” and enhance links with apprenticeships and higher education to “futureproof what we’re doing”.

“We have to ensure that wherever the investment is made, the benefits come back to the State. That absolutely involves a partnership between education, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and further education and apprenticeships.

“What we don’t need is global multinational corporations making tiny donations to universities and then, off the

Workers’ rights

“Some politicians will say to you that if you are going to give a company a grant that you have to be able to then say to them, ‘well, you have to give x per cent to workers’ rights’. I would say that workers’ rights cannot be bought, and they should never be bought. Eventually, the price becomes too high.”

Unsurprisingly, O’Reilly advocates for the creation of “conditions for workers to get organised”. “That means supporting trade unions and putting in legislation that means that trade unions can be facilitated to do their work,” she adds.

Budget 2021 Similar to the July Stimulus, O’Reilly

“We meet with businesspeople every day of the week both locally and nationally and they are planning for the change of government that people voted for back in February. As Mary Lou McDonald has said, that change might be postponed but it cannot be stopped.”

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criticised Budget 2021 as a missed opportunity to support businesses and protect jobs. In particular, the Sinn Féin frontbench TD is critical of the Government’s decision to implement a tax back system rather than her party’s proposed stay-and-spend voucher scheme for the tourism and hospitality sector.

“Sinn Féin proposed a stimulus for the tourism and hospitality sector back in late-June/early-July. That worked. It worked in other jurisdictions and it worked really well because it put money exactly where it was needed which was into the back pockets of people who didn’t have money. It was a really quick channel to get that into SMEs at local level. “[The Government] ignored that. Instead it went for this convoluted tax back system which didn’t come into play until the businesses were shut. There was an entire summer lost when people could have, if they had a few bob in their back pocket, taken the kids down to the local ice-cream parlour, spending the money locally, keeping jobs alive. That is a microcosm of the missed opportunity that was there.”

Covid-19 Covid-19 has had an unrivalled impact across all economic sectors, radically transforming the employment landscape.

“Covid-19 has changed how everyone thinks,” O’Reilly says simply. “Things can’t go back to the status quo. The pandemic ruptured society and when we looked down, we saw that the economy had, to a terrifying extent, been built on precarious, low-income and unstable work. That’s not right. As I said on the record in the Dáil to the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach, if there’s going to be a recovery from this pandemic, it will not and cannot be built on the back of low wages and precarious work.”

O’Reilly also emphasises that the pandemic has broadened the definition of essential or key workers which, initially at least, provoked some reflection on the value of low-income work. “Previously, essential workers were the shiny button people, the firefighters or the guards. The essential workers in the pandemic were the men and women pulling the shutters up in the local shop and providing you

with food. The essential workers were the cleaners.

move up to 67. They’re going to stop at

“I will do my damnedest, and I see it as my first priority, to ensure that we don’t unlearn those lessons and that we don’t simply say, ‘well, the pandemic is over, let’s draw a line under that and go back to precarious work and devalue people who clean for a living’. That can’t happen.”

because they need to go to 65,” she

66, but actually we need to keep pushing says.

Vision Looking beyond Sinn Féin’s current stint as lead party of opposition, O’Reilly maintains that it would be “very foolish” not to plan for a day when her party will

Challenges Unpacking some of the most significant challenges currently facing workers, O’Reilly emphasises the crippling cost of childcare. “Many families work all week, but they pay the cost of another mortgage just to have kids minded so they can go to work. It absolutely beggars belief. It was a huge issue during the [general] election and we would have produced a very comprehensive, fully costed policy around transitioning from the model we have at the moment, more towards a State-based model, but ensuring that we place a proper value on the work done by early years educators.

“These are the people we entrust to shape the minds of our children; they do a hugely important job and very often they are doing it for minimum wage or not much more than that. That’s not right.

The cost of rearing children, particular at the early stages, is absolutely creasing families at the minute. That hasn’t gone away.”

The Sinn Féin enterprise spokesperson also identifies “the right to retire at the age of 65” as something that should be “an absolute fundamental”. “It’s a huge challenge and we know that we have succeeded on pushing the Government back on this, so they have agreed not to

hold the levers of fiscal policy in Ireland.

“We meet with businesspeople every day of the week both locally and nationally and they are planning for the change of government that people voted for back in February [2020]. As Mary Lou McDonald has said, that change might be postponed but it cannot be stopped.

“People know that that change is coming. They also know, by the way, when they talk to us, that there is nothing to fear from that change. Nobody has anything to fear from decent work and decent wages.”

Asked about her vision for the future, O’Reilly replies succinctly: “A united Ireland where decent work and affordable cost of living is the order of the day, where we balance development between cities and regions.”

Brexit has reinvigorated the conversation around Irish unity, she contends, concluding: “When we talk about a united Ireland, we talk about the economic benefits versus the cost of maintaining partition on the island of Ireland. We see then the opportunity that we have to rebuild and reimagine a new Ireland based on decent work, decent pay and unity.”

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Effective tax rates in Ireland average 8 per cent lower than the EU average. In the same time period, corporation taxes were 7 per cent lower than average, which correlated to a higher consumption tax rate, with the rate in Ireland is 4 per cent higher than the EU average.

Both the Irish and EU average labour tax rates display a “mild upward trend” since 2002. A fall in 2008 is attributed to the “impact of the Irish crisis, which led to a significant decline of the corresponding tax revenues”. From 2008 to 2011, the ‘Troika years’, a noticeable increase is seen that is mostly related to the debt consolidation measures of that era. From then onwards, the labour tax rate “follows a mild upward trend similar to the EU average”. Changes in consumption taxes were found to be more “volatile” in Ireland than they were in the rest of the EU.

A new report has found that Ireland has lower effective tax rates on labour, capital and corporate income than the EU average, a fact which “could be a contributing factor to the country’s strong economic performance”.

The report, Effective tax rates in Ireland by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), says that Ireland’s “effective tax rates on labour, capital and corporate income are lower to the EU average, while the tax burden on consumption is consistently higher”.

When these estimates are related to macroeconomic variables of interest, the ESRI found that “labour taxes are negatively correlated with hours worked, while capital and corporate taxes are negatively related with business investment”. Thus, the policies of Ireland are found to be positively correlated with

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GDP growth and as such can be considered a contributing factor to the strong economic performance of the country.

These findings are however followed by a disclaimer about the use of the analysis: “We stress that despite the presence of strong correlations, they should not be given any causal interpretation. A more detailed study on the tax structure, based on formal econometric models and testing, is left for future research.”

Between 1995 and 2017, the report finds that taxes on labour in Ireland were on

Social security costs were also found to be “significantly lower” in Ireland than elsewhere in the EU, with average contribution rates from employers in Ireland standing at 12.07 per cent from 1995 to 2017, compared with the EU average of 17.4 per cent. In recent times, this difference has become more pronounced.

When broken down into four smaller timespans, a trend of employer contributions shrinking in Ireland as the EU average emerges. From 1995-2001, the figures stand at 12.6 per cent and 16.5 per cent for Ireland and the EU respectively; by the period 2012-2017, Ireland’s figure has fallen to 11.9 per cent, while the EU’s average has risen to 18.01 per cent.

In that same time, social security costs on employees have risen in Ireland and the EU, to averages of 5.63 per cent in Ireland and 12.9 per cent in the EU from 1995-2017. These costs have risen at a quicker rate in Ireland, from 5.3 per cent from 1995-2001 to 6.6 per cent from 2012-2017; comparatively, the EU average was 12.8 per cent from 19952001 and rose to 13.3 per cent by 20122017.

Freedom to innovate

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Freedom to innovate

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How healthcare is scaling and innovating to meet demand

The future of healthcare is happening right now. Since April 2020, Irish patients have seen a dramatic change in how they interact with the healthcare system, while healthcare professionals and support teams have rapidly scaled to help the country cope with Covid-19, writes Mark Finlay, Head of Public Sector for the Republic of Ireland at Amazon Web Services.

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A new wave of innovation for Irish healthcare has taken off and one of the things that has made this possible is the adoption of cloud computing. In the case of the Health Service Executive (HSE), the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud is the underlying infrastructure for their Covid Tracker application. The agility and scalability provided by AWS Cloud meant the app was developed, tested, and the first prototype version was available in just two days. Designed to improve the speed, accuracy, and effectiveness of contact tracing, once the app was launched in July there were one million downloads in the first 36 hours, and 1.54 million by week four, equivalent to 30 per cent of Ireland's population. Because of the cloud's elasticity, the Covid Tracker app is able to meet fluctuating demands for capacity as pandemic activity changes.

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The AWS Cloud in Ireland There are a number of reasons why leading Irish businesses and public sector organisations such as the HSE are choosing to work with AWS. The AWS Cloud is the most widely used, and feature-rich cloud service. It offers instant access to the latest secure infrastructure, low-cost storage, machine learning and data analytics capabilities.

And, with the cloud, resources scale up or down as needed, with customers only paying for what they use. The Irish public sector is well positioned to adopt AWS, considering Ireland is home to the very first AWS Region (a resilient cluster of data centres) in Europe. This means Irish data remains in the jurisdiction, helping to fulfil data sovereignty requirements.

This data security is especially important for the Covid Tracker App. It means the Irish public can feel confident their data is secure and the app complies with international legislation, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). While this is one of the most high-profile examples, the Irish public are experiencing a wide range of new healthcare innovations, all built using the cloud.

Reducing administrative burden The implementation of telehealth services in the cloud has proved particularly beneficial to Irish patients in hard-to reach or rural areas, and those with mobility issues. It’s enabling them to receive care without having to step into a doctor’s office. Caredoc, an out of

Freedom to innovate

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hours family GP service, experienced a significant increase in call volume from concerned citizens due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Caredoc’s clinicians were tasked with triaging calls and phoning back citizens with suspected Covid-19 symptoms to further evaluate their condition and consider next steps. Even though there were no supporting systems in place, Caredoc implemented a new process in just one week by using UX Forms, a cloud-based application built on AWS. They were able to eliminate manual admin and reconciliation tasks to track calls, saving them two hours of administrative work per day. Caredoc has managed to resolve patient calls 30 per cent faster than before, freeing up more time to help others in need.

Implementation of Telehealth Another case in point is Wellola, an Irish software firm that provides secure video and patient portal services to healthcare providers, who faced a Covid-driven spike in users. Using multiple AWS services, Wellola was able to scale to meet demand while delivering a best-inclass, reliable, and secure platform that cost-effectively met regulatory standards and HIPAA and GDPR requirements.

Today, Wellola is providing over 600 GPs, allied healthcare providers, charities and Section 38 entities in Ireland and the UK with secure video consultations, messaging, digital letters, record keeping, and payment facilities to help them manage and mitigate the impact of the pandemic.

Scaling with increasing demand

For example, the UK’s National Health Service Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) handles just under five billion calls every year, but this is increasing 25 per cent year over year. In order to meet the demand, NHSBSA used AWS artificial intelligence services to

AWS is also providing hosting services for an app used by the World Health Organization (WHO) to help protect WHO workers caring for Covid-19 patients. The app enables workers to access the WHO’s rapidly expanding bank of Covid-19 learning resources and guidance, along with virtual skills workshops and other live training, to help them stay safe in the field.

Furthermore, the WHO is using AWS machine learning services to identify misinformation and classify Covid-19related content for a more accurate understanding, and a more effective response to the pandemic.

Innovation to drive efficiencies One of the issues we have seen in healthcare is the increasing amount of digital data and the lack of interoperability needed for patient satisfaction and smooth operations. But, if we look at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in the United States they were able to unlock data silos using the cloud. Disparate data systems had impacted efficiencies and productivity

over the years. So, to streamline and connect the large quantities of data they were working with, they used AWS in tandem with open source software. Now, their researchers can securely access, share, and interpret data in a fraction of the time, allowing more focus on discovering new therapies and cures.

This is what scaling and innovation in healthcare looks like and while cloud technology enables all these things, it’s down to people, their boundless ingenuity and visionary leadership to break down barriers.

Repeatedly, this pandemic has shown us that when healthcare leaders are given the freedom to scale their thinking, and when decisions happen quickly, they can save more lives and build a brighter future for everyone.

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With cloud computing, frontline services in Ireland have been able to pivot in support of changing needs throughout the pandemic. In addition, the capabilities and experience AWS has built over the last 14 years has enabled it to assist healthcare organisations further afield.

automate portions of their healthcare contact call centre and answer common questions more quickly. They experienced a reduction in calls to their representatives by more than 40 per cent, equivalent to approximately €550,000 in savings annually.

If you’d like to learn more about how the AWS Cloud can help your organisation to innovate and digitally transform, please contact the Irish AWS Public Sector team via aws-publicsector-ireland@amazon.com

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Freedom to innovate

“He’s only getting started”: Health Minister Stephen Donnelly TD health report

Tony Holohan about the National Public Health Emergency Team’s proposals to reintroduce Level 5 public health restrictions undermined the Government’s narrative on the sequence of events. “I do, of course, have confidence in the Health Minister,” the Taoiseach said.

That being said, it is early days for Donnelly who is only six months into his first outing as a cabinet minister. Much now depends on his handling of the ongoing Covid-19 crisis in the first months of 2021 and the reorientation of the health and social care systems towards Sláintecare implementation.

Indeed, many of the healthcare responses to Covid-19 are components of Sláintecare.

The initial forays of Stephen Donnelly TD as Health Minister have been less than impressive. However, his stewardship of the notoriously difficult portfolio emerged amidst a public health crisis of unprecedented scope and scale. Now armed with the largest health budget in the history of the State, it remains to be seen whether the Minister can successfully navigate the Covid-19 pandemic and deliver on his government’s Sláintecare ambitions.

Stephen Donnelly TD succeeded his Wicklow compatriot and rival Simon Harris TD as Minister for Health in June 2020. In marked contrast with his predecessor, Donnelly’s initial interactions with the media were decidedly clumsy. In one interview he made a bizarre comparison between Covid-19 and trampolining as an “inherently risky” activity. At a media briefing days later, Colette Sexton, a special adviser to the Minister, tried and failed to dictate the line of questioning from journalists, creating further embarrassment.

Similarly, on 7 October 2020, a video posted by Stephen Donnelly’s Twitter account outlined the ‘achievements’ of 38

his first 100 days, including GP care for all primary school children, increased access to medical cards for the over70s, the launch of the Covid-19 App and the largest ever Winter Plan, concluding that “he’s only getting started”. In reality, however, free GP care for the under-8s has been postponed indefinitely, while increased access to medical cards should have been implemented as early as July 2020 having awaited Donnelly’s approval.

Furthermore, at a press conference the following day, Taoiseach Micheál Martin was forced to publicly state his confidence in the Health Minister. The revelation that Donnelly had numerous conversations with Chief Medical Officer

The Minister does not underestimate the challenges that lie ahead. “The combination of winter and what Covid has done to our healthcare system means that this winter will probably be the most challenging time in healthcare in living memory,” he remarked.

A Department of Health SWOT analysis of Covid-19 and the health and social care system prepared for Donnelly in June 2020 determined that while many positive changes occurred rapidly in response to the pandemic, several weaknesses were also exposed.

Strengths: •

a move to new ways of working remotely and changes to clinical work practices;

•

enhanced public awareness of wellbeing;

•

experience communicating public health messages; and

•

improved capacity.

Weaknesses: •

a dearth of real-time information and data;

•

absence of agreed care pathways;

•

insufficient public health oversight of public and private health and social care settings; and

•

insufficient infrastructural capacity.

Freedom to innovate Given this context, the Department identified an opportunity “for implementing Sláintecare at pace”. This ties in neatly with Donnelly’s preelection analysis that Sláintecare had been reduced to mere political platitude. An agreed vision is one thing, but its implementation as a plan is another altogether.

As such, it was an opportune moment to define and achieve consensus on Sláintecare project priorities through engagement with key stakeholders.

These priorities range from Regional Health Areas to workforce reform.

Regional health areas With the HSE Board in place, the health sector must provide a detailed outline of how patient services can be delivered locally, safely, fairly and to a high standard within the six new regional health areas.

Enhanced capacity access Examining new ways in which to utilise community settings and partnerships fostered with private hospitals to alleviate pressure on the public service.

This includes increasing bed and critical care capacity for the Covid-19 crisis and beyond and prioritising the elective-only programme for patient treatment.

Enhanced community care The expansion of primary and community care is one of the central tenets of Sláintecare. The Government has committed to this expansion through the development of Community Healthcare Networks, increased opening times for unscheduled care, consolidating general practice, establishing a DEIS-style programme for health, increasing telemedicine capacity, consulting on a new contract for the enhanced role of pharmacists and expanding community ophthalmology.

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly TD expanding the availability of health and social care services, the Government has made several commitments. These commitments include introducing a Statutory Homecare Scheme, increasing homecare hours, expanding community intervention teams, developing the role of advanced nurse practitioners, increasing the deployment of assistive technologies, delivering a Carers’ Guarantee, improving access to talk therapies and developing a plan to tackle loneliness and isolation.

acknowledged the relationship between healthcare and housing. As such, it has undertaken to establish a Commission on Care.

Enhanced acute care

Building on the experience of deploying eHealth solutions in response to the Covid-19, the Government has committed to investment in ICT infrastructure as per Project Ireland 2040 and the eHealth strategy.

Prior to the Covid-19 crisis, additional capacity was already required across every aspect of health and social care services in Ireland in order to meet demand. As such, the Government has indicated that it will continue capital investment as per the Project Ireland 2040, utilise private hospital capacity where required, open the National Children’s Hospital, commence building the new maternity hospital, increase National Ambulance Service capacity, provide new radiation oncology facilities in Dublin and Galway, deliver a second cardiac catheterisation lab in Waterford and improve palliative care pathways.

Eligibility and entitlement Over its lifetime, the Government has committed to the extensions of free GP care to more children and to carers in receipt of the Carer’s Support Grant, alongside the removal of in-patient hospital charges for children.

Public-only contract The Government has outlined its commitment to the Sláintecare consultant contract and legislation for public-only work in public hospitals.

Home and community care

Enhanced integration of care

In pursuit of the Sláintecare Implementation Plan objective of keeping care close to home and

In order to accommodate the future healthcare requirements of an ageing population the Government has

health report

“In line with previous correspondence between the Department and the HSE, there is a desire to ensure that the learning from the Covid-19 response is used to inform the implementation of Sláintecare,” the Department of Health briefing states.

“The combination of winter and what Covid has done to our healthcare system means that this winter will probably be the most challenging time in healthcare in living memory.”

Workforce reform The Government has outlined its plan to recruit additional staff across the health service, as well as increasing the number of public-only consultants in hospitals.

eHealth

Communications Through collaboration with the Dialogue Forum, the Government has committed to building a better working relationship with the voluntary health sector.

However, the Minister for Health’s specific policy priorities have not been explicitly outlined. Writing in the Sunday Business Post, over three-and-a-half years later, former HSE CEO Tony O’Brien has called for the Sláintecare plan to be revisited and replaced with an updated plan which reflects the current health challenges. “Without articulating a meaningful and updated plan, Donnelly can neither be true to his own critique nor convincingly own the health reform agenda on which his success as minister and his government’s standing depends,” he argues.

Now, with an extra €4 billion included in the health budget for 2021, an opportunity exists to simultaneously pursue the extraordinary health measures required to mitigate Covid-19 while introducing increased permanent capacity, enhancing access to primary care and ultimately implementing the Sláintecare vision.

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health report

Collaborating to manage, treat, understand and defeat Covid-19

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The pandemic has been the cause of great sadness and destruction across the globe. Being involved in the solution is a responsibility and a privilege for Cerner and our clients worldwide, and has driven innovation and collaboration at a pace hitherto unseen.

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Supporting Irish healthcare providers and their patients

codes, helping to better identify and track patients suspected – or found positive – of having Covid-19. With an eye on efficiency and safety, they

St James’s Hospital in Dublin have been operating their full electronic health record (EHR) since 2018, and so were well-placed to move quickly in order to respond to the pandemic. Their EHR is a single source of truth, as opposed to multiple, disconnected paper notes. The system enables clinicians to access information from anywhere in the hospital, making lab orders and contact tracing more efficient. They were able to incorporate universal SNOMED-CT

amended their system to incorporate the Covid Critical Care Index Score, an innovation that was then made available to Cerner clients worldwide.

Mothers and babies were able to benefit from Cerner’s partnership with the HSE through the Maternal and Newborn Clinical Management System (MN-CMS) EHR, which supports 40 per cent of Ireland’s births across Cork, Kerry and Dublin.

MN-CMS enables multidisciplinary staff to access patient records without human contact, which is an antimicrobial benefit that’s even more valuable in a pandemic. This ability to access and update the patient record from any location also facilitated the establishment of offsite outreach clinics, meaning expectant mothers do not need to travel to University Hospital Kerry’s acute facilities. It also allows patients to be discharged earlier, as records can be accessed and updated virtually in consultation with the patient.

Similar to the communication improvements at St James’s, the MNCMS team enabled the Covid communication icon in their record, which will alert users to an infection risk on an electronic tracking board once the Covid problem was entered. It can be flagged to alert users in all areas.

Dashboards give a clear visualisation of the current status within a hospital in terms of actual numbers of patients with Covid-19, which can be useful for

hospital management and operational planning and reporting.

Operationalising health network improvements in days and weeks Our partnership and existing hospital and community base with the NHS in the UK means that we are able to quickly collaborate to deliver value at a huge scale.

For example, we supported Barts Health with the set-up of the 4,000-bed temporary Nightingale Hospital at London’s ExCeL convention centre – in just one week. This meant that Barts Health’s clinicians and admin staff working at Nightingale had full access to relevant data, and didn’t need any additional training to do so. Having a linked EHR also permitted staff to request tests and access their results rapidly, helping to boost throughput of recovered patients and maximise the hospital’s capacity.

While all of the Barts Health sites use Cerner Millennium®, that’s not the case for all the trusts that use the OneLondon ‘super HIE’. This is where Cerner’s commitment to interoperability comes to the fore, with our open standards-based approach allowing for the health and care records of up to nine million people to be shared with the people that need them.

As Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust’s Stephen East told Digital Health

in August, being part of the super HIE “provides a clear view of clinical information in real time, and it can be easily and rapidly rolled out at scale.

Within five days, we were able to extend its reach from six to 18 Clinical Commissioning Groups covering the vast majority of London GPs.”

demographics to help track spread and

As we look to the availability of vaccinations in 2021, some of our clients are aiming to use their Cerner solutions at scale for Covid-19. For example, Boston Children’s Hospital were already using immunisation forecasting functionality to keep their patients up to date with their existing vaccines. This experience may now be leveraged to roll out Covid-19 vaccines to entire patient populations.

recipients that will benefit from the

Covid-19 analytics for prevention and cures Cerner’s collaborations on Covid-19 haven’t been limited to actively treating the illness or purely for operational efficiencies. We have also been involved in enabling research projects to help study this novel coronavirus, so that prevention – and a cure – can be the end goal.

Earlier this year we launched a Covid-19 analytics lab with health networks in the U.S., leveraging our analytics platform and a national data set capability.

Cerner provided healthcare researchers free access to Cerner’s Covid-19 data set to support related epidemiological studies, clinical trials and medical treatments, in line with applicable laws and guidelines. The de-identified patient data secured and stored on Cerner HealtheDataLab™, powered by Amazon Web Services, includes Covid-19-related

surge, underlying illnesses and chronic conditions, treatments, lab results, and clinical complications and outcomes that could help drive important medical decisions. A committee formed of industry advisors and industry leaders review the applications and identify complimentary offering.

Currently, the data is being used on over 50 studies, including one at UT Southwestern in Dallas, Texas, which showed that age and underlying health conditions are more of a factor than ethnicity when it comes to Covid-19 mortality in hospitalised patients, for example.

Post-Covid planning has already begun As the Covid-19 pandemic is spreading across the globe, healthcare providers, governments and other stakeholders are executing strategies to respond to the surge of testing and treatment demands associated with the virus.

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Being an extension of Barts Health’s Cerner Millennium® domain also meant that Nightingale had London-wide connectivity, via Cerner’s Health Information Exchange (HIE). This allowed seamless sharing of patient information with local primary and community care providers, and then across London’s other acute trusts via the OneLondon Local Health and Care Record Exemplar (LHCRE).

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The EHR also makes identifying people with Covid-19 quicker and safer. This begins at the bedside, where real-time requests can be made and results received, speeding up the process for both clinician and patient. Even in another environment – be it an outpatient clinic or at home – access is still possible. The use of a single source of truth also benefits laboratory staff, as all the required data is fed in automatically and reduces any risk of contamination.

Many are now preparing their strategies for the recovery phase, when the impact of unmet clinical demand from 2020 will cause further significant challenges for our healthcare systems. We look forward to supporting our Irish and global healthcare clients through these difficult times.

www.cerner.ie Twitter: @CernerIRL 41

health report

Freedom to innovate

Implementing a customer-centric business model in the health service With over 30 years’ experience in the health service, for HSE Assistant National Director, Julie Ryan, it has always been about identifying opportunities to create efficiencies, bringing about service improvements and essentially helping to build a better health service.

Ciarán Galway discusses the importance of a customer-centric business model.

Julie Ryan’s career has spanned from working in the acute hospital sphere where, among other initiatives, she was involved in coordinating the establishment of the Symptomatic Breast Unit, one of eight centres of excellence in Ireland. Later, she transitioned into national procurement before moving into the shared services division in 2014. This experience instilled something of a lens in order to recognise the importance of being agile and understand complex scenarios, as well as offering and delivering innovative solutions all while keeping the customer and patient experience at the core.

In recent times, Ryan has been leading out on Business Excellence and Digital Innovation (BEDI) in order to grow and enhance service delivery, optimise value and improve customer experience across the shared services business division of the HSE. Ryan’s team now comprises three core components informed by people, process and

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technology: business relationship management; operational excellence; and digital innovation. These areas work together to maximise synergies and opportunities to support and enhance the customer-centric business model.

Business relationship management When considering an organisation as large as the HSE, Ryan insists that connecting the centre with the frontline is essential. “In terms of business services, it’s important that we understand the impact of the services we deliver on the frontline. For example, if a nurse or a clinician doesn’t get their equipment on time, it may result in the cancellation of a surgery. That has a negative impact on the patient and the resource of the hospital. Similarly, if we don’t get staff or suppliers paid on time, there are negative repercussions”.

“An organisation as large as the HSE is

difficult to navigate and the link between the services and the frontline is exceptionally important,” she says.

The Assistant National Director now has a team of business relationship managers (BRMs) each aligned to a portfolio of customers across the hospital groups and community healthcare organisations.

“One of the things that customers find difficult is how to navigate their way and identify who to approach for information. At a strategic level, our BRMs bridge that gap and act as trusted advisers in the customer space.

They have made a real difference.

“We have developed that capability and the BRMs are now professionally accredited through the BRM Institute.

There is evidence that this has generated significant added value and customers have referred to the BRMs as the glue which holds everything together. That was particularly evident during the Covid-19 pandemic,” Ryan notes.

Freedom to innovate

health report

“An organisation as large as the HSE is difficult to navigate and the link between the services and the frontline is exceptionally important.”

HSE Assistant National Director, Julie Ryan

The Assistant National Director reflects upon speaking at an event on ‘Creating the trust to grow from the outside in’ and outlines: “This is really what it’s all about, our customers need to have trust and confidence in the services delivered to them so they are enabled to do their job. We have to remain connected to the staff delivering patient care and frontline health services, the BRMs are an essential component in making this happen.”

Operational Excellence Ryan is a firm believer in the importance of constantly reviewing business processes and the way business is carried out in order to ensure it is meeting the needs of customers in a constantly changing environment. “Driving a level of standardisation and consistency in how business is conducted is critical. What was fit for purpose five years ago may not be fit for purpose today so we need to take the opportunity to constantly question the way we do things and ask is it meeting the needs of the organisation and our customers or are we just doing what we have always done,” she states.

“This is why instilling a culture of service improvement and innovation across the organisation is a strong principle for not only operational excellence but for the Business Excellence and Digital Innovation team.”

Within operational excellence, Business Excellence and Digital Innovation recently launched its Lean Academy.

Cognisant of the impact on frontline services, lean is about ensuring that business is conducted efficiently.

“It’s about providing staff with the tools and capability to drive improvement themselves, reflecting on the day-today activities that they undertake through the lens of lean in order to remove waste, add efficiencies and standardise their processes,” the Assistant National Director explains.

The academy has now pivoted online to mitigate Covid-19 public health restrictions and this has inadvertently created an opportunity by broadening participation.

“We began with a Lean Six Sigma White Belt programme which is an introduction to the fundamentals of lean methodologies for healthcare. As a management team, we have all completed that. We also have Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt and Green Belt programmes, alongside a module on process mapping which a number of staff have already completed and the feedback has been positive “The yellow and green belts are aligned to work-related projects. A staff member undertaking the programme then applies the learning to something that they are doing at work. It is more practical than merely learning the theory. Through this approach, we aim to embed a culture of lean within the organisation. Again, it’s about building in-house capability within each of the business units so that it becomes part of their work culture,” she asserts.

Digital Innovation Ryan believes it is vital to embrace the digital age and, from an organisational perspective, to maximise the power of digital in order to work smarter. Digital innovation is tasked with informing, promoting and overseeing the shared

services digital journey.

“As an organisation with a business service of our size, we must be supported by data and customer intelligence. Within the digital team, we have developed a customer relationship management [CRM] system which is now at an advanced stage of implementation.

“That is about gathering intelligence from all of our customer touchpoints, to firstly identify and then understand problems, to enable us to make datainformed decisions and rectify them. In the absence of such a system, this occurs on an ad hoc and potentially repetitive basis,” Ryan details.

From a customer perspective, first point of contact resolution is important. It saves time and effort while facilitating a comprehension of a given problem and where improvement efforts should be focused. In rolling out CRM across shared services, Ryan has similarly identified the benefits that this technology and resulting data can bring for the health service in its interactions with patients and service users, and believes what has been delivered within shared services is scalable to deliver benefits far beyond those currently being achieved.

“In September 2020, we launched the Robotics Process Automation [RPA] Centre of Excellence to deliver RPA based automation as a shared service to the public health sector. “RPA is an exciting approach that removes repetitive work and enables staff to move onto more value added activity. It can drive job satisfaction while, in parallel, streamlining processes.

“We started in September 2020 with an

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“Our people and the services they offer are increasingly in high demand. I see this as an endorsement of our decision to upskill our own staff.” initial target of 3,093 hours saved up to year-end, but we’ve surpassed this already with over 22,000 hours saved.

It’s been a huge success. That was especially important in the context of Covid-19, releasing time back to clinical staff,” Ryan emphasises.

Overall, the Digital Innovation model is about developing in-house capability and establishing internal digital product teams who are close to the customer, change aware and agile. Ryan sees the success of this approach borne out by the requests she has been receiving in recent months from health areas beyond shared services for her CRM development team’s input or direct involvement in various CRM related initiatives.

“Our people and the services they offer are increasingly in high demand. I see this as an endorsement of our decision to upskill our own staff to deliver services with our customers. More recently, in the case of RPA, we have been supported by a training programme offered through the HSE Digital Academy to help us achieve our objective to up skill staff to become self-sufficient in developing and utilising RPA technology,” Ryan outlines.

“In a digital age, we need to maximise the opportunities and using the emerging technologies to support us in doing our day-to-day jobs. It’s about developing a community of practice and maximising the synergies across the organisation so that people can share their learning. Instead of duplicating effort, we implement it once and have the process associated with it, then we can scale it up across the organisation.

“By having the RPA Centre of Excellence, we have full visibility of all the opportunities that come through.

There is a pipeline of activity and having that global view allows us to spot opportunities for collaboration where

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multiple areas propose similar opportunities. So far, we have been involved in Garda Vetting, Income Reporting and HPSC’s Covid Surveillance.”

The synergy which exists between the three elements of Business Excellence and Digital Innovation is informed by people, process and technology.

“Firstly, there must be a relationship with our customers because there is a co-dependency. Then, it’s important that we understand a given problem and get to the root cause through our CRM technology. Thirdly, process improvement rectifies the problem and drives improved service,” Ryan says.

Culture and technology Mindful of the interaction between culture and technology, Ryan emphasises the need to include staff and customers on the transformation journey. “If you don’t cultivate the right culture, then the technology won’t be embraced,” she says, adding: “Take the CRM technology solution, for instance. I didn’t feel that the initial step should be to procure that solution. Instead, we conducted a customer survey. Based on the positive feedback I received from customers in relation to the single point of contact, we launched a pilot.

Only after this did we take the leap to procure a robust CRM system.”

Whether it be CRM or RPA, it is vital to foster an understanding of the benefits that such solutions offer to staff and stakeholders. “The solution is to up skill people as we go. It has to be a journey that people want to travel along, having understood the benefits for themselves and the wider organisation. I think culture is really important and in the absence of optimal culture, you will fail,” she warns.

Benefits While the standardisation of process

and associated financial improvements are obvious benefits, the overarching advantage of the customer-centric model has been the streamlining of processes and the removal of waste.

“In some cases, the impact can be observed on a service itself, whereas many of the benefits generated by initial projects would have been primarily felt by customers. The learning and its subsequent diffusion into the wider organisation has been significantly beneficial,” Ryan reflects.

Challenges However, developing the business model has not been without its challenges. These range from connecting with all stakeholders across an organisation the size of the HSE, to ensuring sufficient skillset capacity for new and emerging solutions like RPA. “When starting with a greenfield site, you have nothing to benchmark against. For that reason, you need confidence that your managers and national directors place trust in your ability to deliver,” the Assistant National Director observes, adding: “Not having standardised processes is also challenging. The way customers operate can vary significantly.

Traditionally, they come from nine or 10 different health boards so all systems are different. Therefore, adaptability is essential to meet the need of each customer.”

Journey Now, over six years into the journey, Ryan is pleased with the level of maturity that the shared services Business Excellence and Digital Innovation team have reached across people, process and technology.

Looking ahead, the Assistant National Director envisages that the unique capability of her team will continue to assist in the ongoing transformation which is now happening across the HSE. “In terms of the business model we have developed, I think there are opportunities to broaden that and to enhance connections with the frontline from the centre,” she concludes.

Where is my PPE?

and St James’s Hospital) have already implemented Scan4safety in some of their operating theatres which includes point of care scanning of products to patients. This reduces the ordering time, improves traceability, and gives time back to patient care. The products that clinicians need are there when and where they need them.

Let’s imagine a world where PPE could be tracked, and the stock could be in the right place at the time it is needed, writes Siobhain Duggan, Director of Innovation and Healthcare, GS1 Ireland.

What can we learn from this crisis to improve our healthcare supply chains?

The Coronavirus pandemic has underlined the fact that we need more efficient and safer healthcare systems that can adapt to new demands. It has also shown, in the context of procurement, the need to maintain critical supplies, and with contact tracing, the importance of traceability and tracking of people as well as medical and medicinal products.

We have an opportunity now to take these learnings and apply them across supply chains in the healthcare sector; so that it is ready, not only for the next crisis, but also to derive routine benefits through using global standards for identification and traceability.

Having traceability that ensures complete, real-time, visibility of products, people and locations at every step of the patient pathway is very achievable. The Scan4Safety programme will deliver not just on improved visibility but also improved patient safety leading in turn to more efficient and resilient processes. The time to act is now!

Background GS1 licences the most widely used system of supply chain standards, serving more than two million public and private sector organisations worldwide.

For more information on Scan4safety and other GS1 innovations please contact:

Siobhain Duggan, Director of Innovation and Healthcare GS1 Ireland T: 01 208 0660 E: healthcare@gs1ie.org W: www.gs1ie.org/healthcare

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Prior to the start of the pandemic, hospitals and health care settings across Ireland and other countries were already giving thought to improve traceability. Hospitals had begun to put into place technology, systems and standards that enable staff to improve procurement processes, track patients, equipment, medical devices and products. This programme, often referred to as Scan4Safety, has resulted in improved patient safety, better management processes, reduced costs, and less waste. Critically, clinical time has also been freed up, allowing more time for patient care, which is particularly relevant in these difficult times.

Do we have 25 million gloves or 25 million pairs of gloves? Early in the pandemic we saw governments across the world searching for supplies, particularly PPE which was in high demand, not only for the safety of patients, but also to protect the frontline workers who worked tirelessly to treat their patients. The Deputy-Director General for Digital and Health at the New Zealand Ministry of Health recently presented at the GS1 Healthcare Summit Online on the key learnings from Covid-19. He explained how they uncovered in their systems, product data which was widely variable and lacked a common language. A huge effort was required to ensure the right product and quantity was ordered due to the lack of standards and access to the right information. The pandemic has proven the critical need for standardised product information across health procurement, and a common goal has been established for "better data, better systems, for better health outcomes".

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A similar programme to track infant feeds was introduced at CHI at Temple Street. Their CEO, Mona Baker says: “We know where each feed is and a product recall can be done in seconds.

This is an excellent example of innovation at CHI at Temple Street to improve patient safety.”

In response to the need to standardise data and utilise the UDI (Unique Device Identifier) in the product barcode, the HSE has recently included the requirement for GTIN data within their tender documents. Two major public hospitals (Tallaght University Hospital 45

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Critical care capacity Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, critical care capacity has come into sharp focus. However, for over a decade, a shortage of capacity in critical care has been highlighted and increases in demand for ICU beds projected.

Critical care is defined by recognition of a patient’s decisive deterioration and the subsequent intervention to provide intensive treatment and close monitoring. Timely critical care greatly enhances the likelihood of survival for a critically ill patient. Critical care is an expensive and finite resource.

Intensive care units (ICUs) are specialist hospital wards staffed by specially trained healthcare professionals who

provide treatment and monitoring for critically ill individuals. ICUs and high dependency units (HDUs) may also be referred to as critical care units (CCUs).

The staff to patient ratio for an intensive care bed is 1:1 and for a high dependency bed it is 1:2. A sufficiently staffed ICU bed, therefore, requires an average of 5.6 nurses to provide direct care 24/7. Registered nurses require a minimum of six months’ training to

“For too long the request of the critical care community for appropriate capacity has been deferred. Serial reports over the past 15 years have consistently documented the inadequacy of critical care capacity in Ireland.”

Open letter to political party leaders from critical care representative organisations in April 2020.

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become an intensive care nurse.

Experts on critical care now refer to ‘levels of care’ when analysing critical care activity. Critically ill patients receive critical care in Level 3 ICU or Level 2 HDU. These are Critical Care Services as defined by the Joint Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine of Ireland (JFICMI).

Founded by the College of Anaesthetists of Ireland; the Intensive Care Society of Ireland; the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland; and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 2009, the JFICMI produced the National Standards for Adult Critical Care Services 2011 for critical care medicine delivery.

Legacy recommendations Over the last decade, a series of recommendations have been made with

Freedom to innovate regard to increasing critical care capacity.

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1. Towards Excellence in Critical Care, a 2009 review of adult critical care services, recommended a 45 per cent increase of critical care beds from 289 to 418. “This will need to increase sequentially to 579 over the period 2010 to 2020,” the Prospectus report stated, adding: “All critical care units should work towards a minimum capacity of eight beds.”

At the time of the report in September 2009, there were 289 funded, open critical care beds in the State and nurse:patient ratios for ICU varied from 1:1 to 1:1.5.

This represented 8.71 adult critical care beds per 100,000 of the adult population (aged 16 and over).

Regardless, between, 2008 and 2013, critical care capacity decreased by 32 beds. Indeed, from 2011 to 2013, there was a 7.5 per cent decrease in adult critical care beds and a simultaneous 22 per cent reduction in critical care nurses. When critical care capacity is decreased in central hospitals, the result is inaccessible critical care services and increased risk for critically ill individuals.

2.

The Critical Care Programme (CCP) is a collaborative initiative administered

by National Clinical Programmes, Clinical Strategy and Programmes Directorate, HSE, in partnership with the Joint Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine of Ireland (JFICMI) and Intensive Care Society of Ireland (ICSI). The stated aimed of the CCP is “to improve the survival of critically ill patients” through “critical care performance improvement by strengthening critical care capability”.

A priority for the CCP is the implementation of a model of care for adult critical care. Building on the 2009 Prospectus report, Right Care, Right Now: Model of Care for Adult Critical Care was published in October 2014.

“In our budget for 2021, there are another 20 beds funded which brings us to 322. All permanent capacity. That’s a significant uplift considering that since 2014, we have been at a static number.” Paul Reid, CEO, HSE The Model of Care for Adult Critical Care concurred with the recommendations for expansion of critical care services, as set out in the 2009 Prospectus report and adds that “an immediate priority must be to restore the loss of critical care bed capacity since 2008”.

Yet, while the CCP advocates for adult critical care capacity increases, it opposes “a ‘big bang’ approach where a huge increase of 190 beds is ‘packed’ into a couple of years e.g. years 2029, 2030 and 2031 down the road. This latter approach is not feasible or achievable, does not plan to meet the needs of critically ill patients in Ireland today and does not represent a sustainable capacity

development strategy”.

Instead, the Critical Care Programme proposes “multi-annual incremental adult critical care capacity increases” to meet the demand of critically ill patients.

3. In 2018, the Department of Health’s Health Service Capacity Review Report recommended an 80 per cent increase in national adult critical care bed capacity from 240 beds to 430 by 2031. Likewise, the HSE’s National Services Plan 2019 identified an increase of 16 critical care beds as a requirement to augment adult critical care capacity.

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“The number of critical care beds should be increased by 45 per cent from 289 to 418 beds. This will need to increase sequentially to 579 over the period 2010 to 2020.”

Towards Excellence in Critical Care, Prospectus Report, 2009

In 2013, the National Office of Clinical Audit (NOCA) established the Irish National Intensive Care Audit (or ICU Audit) which collects data from 18 ICUs across 15 hospitals. The 2018 audit found that critical care bed occupancy in Ireland was very high, at 88 per cent nationally and up to 96 per cent in specific units. This is significantly higher

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Care Nursing Education Training and Integrated Workforce Planning Framework was established by the Critical Care Programme. Through Career Pathway, graduate nurses can now gain immediate access to critical care nursing postgraduate education, training and certification.

However, at the time of the 2019 critical care census (30 September 2019), 19 additional adult ICU beds were “nonoperational, commissioned critical care beds (funding allocated)” because of a “HSE employment pause”.

Covid-19 pressures

“In 2009, the HSE said it needed 579 ICU beds. As I understand it, but the witnesses might confirm the figures on this, we currently have approximately 280. That is a reduction from the 354 beds we had in April. That is very alarming.” Richard Boyd-Barrett TD than the 75 per cent occupancy rate recommended by the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine.

However, this was not unexpected because provision of critical care beds in Ireland (including beds in private hospitals) was 6.0 beds per 100,000 population compared with a European average of 11.5 per 100,000. As such, the major recommendation of the 2018 audit was an increase of bed capacity in adult critical care units (ICU and HDU) towards the 430 beds recommended in the Department of Health’s Health Service Capacity Review 2018.

Meanwhile, the National Adult Critical

Care Capacity and Activity Census Report for 2019 recorded an operational complement of 255 adult critical care beds, incorporating Level 3 ICU and Level 2 HDU beds. This represents a net increase of six adult ICU beds, consolidating increases of seven and eight ICU beds in 2017 and 2018 respectively. In total, HSE Critical Care Census reports have recorded an increase in adult ICU capacity by 21 beds from 2017 to 2019.

In September 2017, a new national ICU nursing workforce planning initiative was launched by then Health Minister Simon Harris TD. Career Pathway or National Postgraduate Specialist Critical

“Critical care beds are really about systems of care involving different types of staff.”

Anne O’Connor, Chief Operations Officer, HSE 48

At the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the relatively low number of ICU beds was identified as a major challenge. In February 2020, the total ICU beds in the public health system was estimated to be 255, translating to 5.5 ICU beds per 100,000 people.

Consequently, the Government announced that private hospitals would temporarily be incorporated in the public health system as facilitated by a €100 million deal. Simultaneously, public hospitals reconfigured a number of beds that could be utilised as additional ICU beds in the event of an admissions surge.

In April 2020, amid the pandemic, critical care representative organisations penned an open letter to all political party leaders requesting that critical care capacity in Ireland be increased from 5.2 critical care beds per 100,000 people to the European average of 11.5 critical care beds per 100,000 people.

Signed by Catherine Motherway, then President, Intensive Care Society of Ireland; John Bates, Dean, Joint Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine of Ireland; Brian Kinirons, President, College of Anaesthesiologists; Wouter Jonker, Irish Association of Anaesthetists; Michael Power, Clinical Lead, Critical Care Programme; and Serena O’Brien, Chair, Irish Association of Critical Care Nurses, the letter outlined: “Ethically and morally this country must insist that the required expansion in intensive care unit capacity is funded, so we can offer appropriate care to all our critically ill patients and cope with the difficult months ahead. Our pre-pandemic

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intensive care unit occupancy of 88 per cent nationally and over 96 per cent in major units is well above the international recommended rate of 75 per cent.

While additional funding in March 2020 from brought the base adult critical care bed numbers from 257 adult beds (197 Level 3 and 60 Level 2) to 285 (239 Level 3 and 46 Level 2), still 145 beds short of the HSE own recommendation of 430 beds by 2031 and 294 beds short of the 2009 Prospectus report target of 579 critical care beds by 2020.

HSE figures In September 2020, appearing before the Oireachtas Special Committee on Covid-19 Response, HSE CEO Paul Reid was questioned in relation to ICU capacity. During the sitting, Richard Boyd-Barrett TD highlighted: “In 2009, the HSE said it needed 579 ICU beds.

As I understand it, but the witnesses might confirm the figures on this, we currently have approximately 280. That is a reduction from the 354 beds we had in April. That is very alarming. We are far short of a target set in 2009 before the advent of Covid-19. We are significantly down from the figures we had in April and let us remind ourselves that in April, the hospitals were providing ICU in theatre recovery areas.

The additional capacity we had was completely surge based and unsustainable in the long run.”

In response, the HSE CEO explained:

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“For too long the request of the critical care community for appropriate capacity has been deferred. Serial reports over the past 15 years have consistently documented the inadequacy of critical care capacity in Ireland.”

“A ‘big bang’ approach where a huge increase of 190 beds is ‘packed’ into a couple of years... is not feasible or achievable, does not plan to meet the needs of critically ill patients in Ireland today.”

Right Care, Right Now: Model of Care for Adult Critical Care, 2014 “On ICUs, this is important, and we need to help clarify it for the public. The total number of ICU beds in March before this pandemic started was 225.

We put in place some further funding.

The Deputy is correct; the number today is 280 and it was 225. An extra 30 beds were funded by Government and further beds were put in place with the pandemic funding. This brought the number up to 280 today, an increase of about 25 per cent since February.

Separately, we have funding for an extra 17 beds in the winter plan. That will bring us close to 300, which would be about a 30 per cent increase on our February figure.”

At the same committee meeting, HSE Chief Operations Officer, Anne O’Connor added: “We are trying to build the more long-term sustainable critical care capacity… Critical care beds are really about systems of care involving different types of staff.”

This was supported by the HSE’s Chief Clinical Officer, Colm Henry, who asserted: “We need to be very clear that when we talk about beds and surge numbers, critical care is a system of care; it is not just counting beds.

“The surge figures in April involved critical care that could potentially have

“We need to be very clear that when we talk about beds and surge numbers, critical care is a system of care; it is not just counting beds.” Colm Henry, Chief Clinical Officer, HSE

been delivered outside established, conventional critical care units. With regard to the outcomes in our critical care units during the first phase, 79 per cent of patients were discharged alive.

This compares very favourably internationally, even though the patient selection was similar.

“The reason, according to our own critical care community, is that most of the care was delivered in established critical care units by our own staff, and not by leaning heavily into surge capacity. To go back to what my colleagues have said, what is important for us, rather than talking about surge capacity, is building up on staffed, funded intensive therapy unit beds and the associated training so we can continue to deliver those excellent outcomes.”

As of late October 2020, the fully staffed ICU bed capacity in Ireland was 285, with a temporary surge capacity of 360. This total is an increase of 30 beds from 255 at the outset of the pandemic.

Speaking with eolas Magazine in October, Reid outlined: “We have another 17 to have in place by January as part of our Winter Plan which will bring us to 302. In our budget for 2021, there are another 20 beds funded which brings us to 322. All permanent capacity. That’s a significant uplift considering that since 2014, we have been at a static number.”

Even with such increases, critical care capacity in Ireland will remain significantly below the recommended increase of 579 beds by 2020 contained in the 2009 Prospectus report.

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St James’s Hospital: Developing in and with the community Since her return, Day has been developing eight strategic programmes of work that will guide St James’s over the next five to seven years, developing those programmes around a portfolio of services being developed. This hospital is the largest academic hospital in the country and the development of national tertiary level status is seen as key towards deliverance, whilst also servicing the local population health needs.

Mary Day was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of St James’s Hospital in June 2020.

She speaks to eolas about her new role, her hopes for the hospital’s expanding campus and how the campus can play a central role at the Advertorial

heart of its community in the Liberties.

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“The attractiveness of the role was

rationale for her return, having

coming back, because I had worked

previously held a similar role at the

here from 2000-2006, to a large

Mater Misercordiae Hospital and in the

healthcare campus which has got a

Ireland East Hospital Group. She “has

huge amount of development at the

an ambition in relation to delivering the

moment in relation to being part of a

first Academic Health Science Centre on

campus that will have the Children’s

the island which is about integrating

Hospital, the Maternity Hospital, Trinity

academia, research, innovation and

on site,” Day begins, explaining her

service delivery”.

“In a large teaching hospital, it is important we have a robust organisational system of care delivery,” Day says. “The institute model is a good example of how the biological model for healthcare will drive how services are organised and delivered across a care continuum. like what we’ve developed in the Mercer’s Institute for Successful Ageing (MISA).” Another Institute which is at an advanced planning stage is the Trinity/ St. James’s Cancer Institute which will integrate the cancer healthcare delivery system with academia, research and innovation. The St James’s Hospital and Trinity College campuses house a portfolio of research infrastructure, including a dedicated Cancer Clinical Trials Unit, the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute, the Trinity Translational Medicine Institute, the Clinical Research Facility, and Trinity Centre for Practice and Healthcare Innovation. This level of research infrastructure compares strongly against institutions internationally and underlines the institution’s commitment to progressing cutting edge research and clinical care.

The Trinity St. James’s Cancer Institute recently received accreditation from the Organisation of European Cancer Institutes, (OECI). This accreditation, the first and only such accreditation in Ireland, lays a significant marker as the Trinity St James’s Cancer Institute aspires to become Ireland’s first fully

Comprehensive Cancer Centre, benefitting cancer patients and their families across the nation.

Day says: “We are also planning to develop the Institute model further in cardiovascular, ambulatory care, adolescents, she believes this is a good model to deliver care across the health continuum.

Day took up her new role in June, just as the first lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic was easing away, and there were lessons in the pandemic for her on how she sees the St James’s developing. “One thing that Covid has taught us is that the majority of the infrastructure in the health system is tired and a lot of it is very old,” she says.

“I’ve worked at hospitals at the group level that were over 150 years old, now we’re not that old but you’re looking at a hospital that was designed in the 1970s and developed in the ‘80s, that doesn’t necessarily match the health needs of the 21st century.

Mirroring the development of these institutes will be the development of an integrated ambulatory care centre which Day sees as being key to St James’s becoming a more of an anchor tenant in the Liberties community. “The Integrated Ambulatory Care Centre presents an opportunity to transfer services from the main hospital campus which is ambulatory and chronic disease

working in healthcare in the community.”

“A lot of the work has been done on this in other health systems. We see St James’s as what might be called the anchor tenant; if you look at the north of England, Scotland, those are good examples of how the health system around the hospital and the community can support overarching community benefits. The way I see St James’s supporting that is through provision of employment, education and innovation.

We are very well positioned here, if you look at the Liberties and the innovation pathway that has been carved out here, working together with our community stakeholders, I think we can provide a lot of added benefit to our stakeholders in relation to opportunities in education and employment, garnering a passion of

opportunity to see how working with the

Concluding, Day stresses the potential, not just for St James’s but for all its stakeholders to work together to deliver a unique health district in Dublin 8 which has innovation at its core. “It provides a test bed for innovations in clinical care.

It’s an opportunity to look at how we can do things better and differently, but we are short on time so it’s a good wider stakeholder community we can leverage the potential of the campus.

What this can provide for the health system is the idea of bringing it closer with industry, digital and the business

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“The overall infrastructural developments are about modernising health accommodation, like 100 per cent single rooms. We saw during Covid when you had hospital outbreaks, the difficulty in controlling that without single room facilities. If you look at the Mercer Centre of Ageing, what that has delivered is a very advanced health system for ageing that integrates uniquely for education, research and innovation and it’s all 100 per cent single rooms. There was no disruption in care in that centre during the pandemic.”

Day outlines that her key priority is to improve the infrastructure and environment of care for patients and staff.

orientated into a facility and really drive the integration with the community and primary care which is aligned with Sláintecare. The campus should also be involved in keeping the population healthy as well as caring for their health needs and provide a population healthbased approach to the delivery of care.

That’s how the community and hospital can come together to develop an integrated model.

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“There is a programme of work around lean operations and lean management in the healthcare environment. I’ve had experience doing that in past roles and there is definitely a place for how we introduce that process redesign into the healthcare space to deliver operational performance and excellence.

“My ambition for the campus is to develop what we call the institute model. If you look at the Mercer Centre of Ageing, what that has delivered is a very advanced health system for ageing that integrates uniquely for education, research and innovation and it’s all 100 per cent single rooms. There was no disruption in care in that centre during the pandemic.”

side, which can only improve care at the bedside.”

Mary Day Chief Executive Officer St James’s Hospital, Dublin 8 T: 01 4162 534 E: mday@stjames.ie ceopa@stjames.ie

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€ Analysing Ireland’s public health expenditure Two 2020 reports by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) give us an insight into how Irish healthcare expenditure is allocated and how this compares with the country’s European counterparts.

The first of these reports, published in May, entitled ‘An analysis of trends in Irish public healthcare expenditure and staffing’, analyses trends in healthcare expenditure and staffing in Ireland between the years 2004 and 2017. One of the key findings of the report is that “although there was a large increase in nominal public current healthcare expenditure during this period, the rate of increase is reduced when adjustments are made for increases in price, population growth and, in particular, population ageing”.

For instance, the nominal increase in

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health expenditure between 2004 and 2017 is a significant 74.2 per cent.

However, once this figure is adjusted for price and population ageing, it becomes a much smaller 2.1 per cent.

The average annual increase in expenditure during that period falls from a nominal 4.4 per cent rise to a real rise of 0.2 per cent when adjusted. Further, the report states that the “share of public healthcare expenditure, which was accounted for by capital expenditure, shrank from 5.1 per cent in 2004 to 3.2 per cent in 2017”, which suggests that “increases in public

current healthcare were partially funded through reductions in public capital healthcare expenditure”.

In line with overall expenditure figures showing significant dips in the 20082013 period, the report shows that while HSE pay expenditure and staffing increased by 4.4 per cent from 2007 to 2017, these figures decreased by 1.6 per cent from 2007 to 2010 and by 5.6 per cent from 2010 to 2013. As the report points out: “The employment control framework, characterised by incentivised early retirement, voluntary redundancy and a moratorium on

Freedom to innovate recruitment, was applied across these two time periods due to the financial crisis.”

“Discussion of healthcare expenditure would benefit by placing trends into the context of changing prices and demographics.”

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The report also stresses that the “discussion of healthcare expenditure would benefit by placing trends into the context of changing prices and demographics” and that examining the expenditure in per capita terms is also essential due to population growth and the projected continuation of such growth. Related to both the employment control framework and Ireland’s growing and ageing population is the amount of early retirement plans the HSE now has in its expenditure.

These packages were agreed with the aim of short-term cost-saving at a time of severe austerity, but the report warns that they “may, in fact, lead to increased expenditure over time”.

Real total public health expenditure per capita increased by 46.5 per cent between 2004 and 2017, with an annual average increase of 3 per cent. Real public expenditure per capita increased by 23.3 per cent in the same period, an average annual increase of 1.6 per cent.

Real public expenditure per capita over 65 increased by just 0.1 per cent over the period, an annual average increase of just 0.007 per cent, which “suggests that public healthcare expenditure kept pace with the increases in price and in the size of the population aged 65 and over in Ireland between 2004 and 2017”.

These increases were, however, “front loaded”, with over 65 per capita real spending increasing by 26.1 per cent from 2004 to 2008 but decreasing by 20.2 per cent from 2008 to 2013 and again by 0.6 per cent from 2013 to 2017.

How Ireland compares with Europe Based on the 2017 data, the ESRI has subsequently released a new report, ‘How does Irish healthcare expenditure compare internationally?’, published in October, in order to contextualise Irish healthcare spending within the OECD and the EU15.

The study found that Ireland ranks differently depending on the other measures of healthcare expenditure required. Ireland’s total healthcare expenditure as share of national income

ranks first in the EU15, while total healthcare expenditure per capita with adjustment for relative pricing places Ireland ninth. This category can be further broken down into public and private; Ireland ranks ninth in public health expenditure per capita and second in private health expenditure per capita.

figure that the Netherland does not

Another of the major takeaways was the inconsistency of countries in their classification of social care expenditure.

10 of the EU15 allocated some social care expenditure to healthcare-related expenditure, which is not counted in healthcare expenditure, but Ireland allocated €4.6 billion to social care within its healthcare expenditure and none under healthcare-related expenditure. Included in this figure is €900 million paid to family carers, a

per capita with adjustment for relative

account for in its health spending.

Ireland includes all home care, group homes and day services in its expenditure, figures that the UK largely excludes.

With health and social care expenditure combined, Irish public health spending prices ranks 10th in the EU15. MaevAnn Wren, ESRI Senior Research Officer and the lead author of the report, said: “Understanding Ireland’s apparently relatively high healthcare expenditure needs to be informed by an understanding that Ireland’s relatively high prices and wages have obscured the continuing relatively low volume of Irish healthcare services delivered.”

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health report

The importance of research in addressing the challenges in our health service

While the role of research is readily understood in the context of medical practice, it also holds a crucial position in understanding the medical workforce.

Effective workforce research offers insight into the strengths and weaknesses of medical services and informs future planning, supporting practitioners and safeguarding standards of patient care, writes Jantze Cotter, Director of Professional Competence, Research and Ethics at the Medical Council.

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This year with the unprecedented arrival of Covid-19 and its resulting implications on health care systems around the world, the importance of effective workforce planning is more evident than ever before. Through its annual registration process and practitioner engagement surveys, the Medical Council, as the regulator of medical practitioners in Ireland, holds a unique set of data offering insight into the medical workforce. Through engaging with the data, the Council in conjunction with health service stakeholders have sought to address challenges and fortify strengths as highlighted by the data, to maintain the high quality of medical care in Ireland.

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Everyday across the health service, vast amounts of data are generated relating to patient care and illnesses but also reflecting the health system itself; how it is working and how those who work in it are operating. The effective harnessing of this data, especially during the current pressurised period, should be utilised to inform and improve future healthcare planning for staff and patients alike.

Taking the time to compile and examine data can be a rich source of information on improving workforce planning and patient care outcomes.

Over the last number of years, the Medical Council has been using data collected through the annual registration process and Your Training Counts

surveys to improve the provision of safe quality patient care. This data enables the Council to both directly and indirectly influence the training and practise of the registered medical profession. The Council’s reporting of medical workforce data has progressed from a purely statistical report to the annual publication of the Workforce Intelligence Report (WFIR). The WFIR links the analysis of qualitative and quantitative data with current health sector issues and policy and is used by stakeholders to inform medical education and training, recruitment and retention strategies, and Irish health care policy. From the Medical Council’s perspective, this data informs the provision of standards, resources, training, education and ongoing professional development and is essential in delivering a safe, quality health care service.

The WFIR is based on analysis of data gathered by the Medical Council through its annual retention of registration process, carried out in June 2019 and 2020. It also draws on existing registration data to provide a crosssectional overview of new entrants during 2019. Overall trends and themes that emerge from analysis of registration data remain generally robust and stable.

The analysis includes quantitative and qualitative data describing registration and divisional status, working arrangements, including self-reported areas of work, hours worked, training status and county of practice. It is a rich source of validated data combined with direct feedback from the medical profession. It highlights ongoing trends of insufficient training places and continued reliance on overseas trained doctors who fill service posts. Recent reports have highlighted the retention of Irish doctors and incidences of burnout as ongoing issues. Joint action of all stakeholders is required to safeguard patient safety and retain our highly trained and experienced medical workforce.

Doctors’ wellbeing is paramount and, as evidenced, burnout has a significant impact on patient safety. The findings highlight a number of issues of concern for the Council. Doctors report burnout, bullying, working in excess of the European Working Time Directive, not returning to practice in Ireland due to poor working conditions in comparison to the country in which they are currently practicing, and well-qualified and experienced doctors cannot access training. These challenges impact directly on patient and professional safety.

The Council also gathers information on intern doctors which is published in the Your Training Counts survey (YTC). YTC is the national trainee experience survey, conducted each year by the Medical Council, documenting the experiences of trainee doctors and interns in the Irish healthcare system.

The report examines the clinical learning environments, working conditions, experiences of bullying, retention and career plans, and health and wellbeing of doctors on training schemes. The

“Recent reports have highlighted the retention of Irish doctors and incidences of burnout as ongoing issues. Joint action of all stakeholders is required to safeguard patient safety and retain our highly trained and experienced medical workforce.” information gathered through the reports informs dialogue and collaboration between individuals and organisations involved in medical education and training in Ireland, with a view to continually improving trainee experiences and outcomes. As mentioned above, a persistent issue facing the health service is doctor retention. Feedback from the YTC is vital in identifying the issues facing doctors early in their careers in order to addresses them and to encourage these doctors to progress their careers in Ireland.

As discussed, the effective compilation of data and feedback from a workforce can be a highly effective tool in generating positive outcomes. The registration and YTC survey data have been effective in developing a greater understanding of doctors’ practise, including the issues that impact on delivery of safe patient care. It is up to the relevant stakeholders to work

together to effect positive change to support patient and profession safety.

Although 2020 has been a difficult year for the Irish health service as it was confronted with novel challenges, changes in medical legislation and the continuation of high quality education, training and patient care will ensure that lessons learned from the pandemic will inform and improve future practice and planning.

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As reflected in the growth in registrations in the general division, doctors from overseas, filling service posts, have not been able to apply for training programmes up until recently due to the long-awaited amendments to the Medical Practitioners Act. The Regulated Professions Bill enacted in October includes provisions that enable doctors from outside the EU to apply for training programmes. However, the application process is highly competitive, and the number of applicants greatly exceeds the places available. To safeguard the future of the health service training programme places must increase. The National Doctors Training and Planning workforce planning process outlines projections necessary to meet service demands. This must be combined with filling the large number of consultant vacancies to ensure ongoing training and supervision is available.

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The data has also reflected a continued trend of a growing General Division and attrition resulting from lack of access to training, poor working conditions and retirement. Despite an increase in intern posts, as a direct result of Covid-19, the findings remain consistent. This being, that collaborative efforts are required to support an under-resourced and highly pressured health service to improve retention of Ireland’s highly trained, skilled and experience medical workforce.

The Medical Council is the regulatory body for doctors. It has a statutory role in protecting the public by promoting the highest professional standards amongst doctors practising in the Republic of Ireland.

You can find out more information about the Council’s work by visiting www.medicalcouncil.ie.

W: www.medicalcouncil.ie 55

Freedom to innovate

Health legislation priorities health report

The tri-party coalition Government has a series of legislative health priorities as outlined in the Programme for Government. The subsequent legislative programme includes the corresponding bills to be progressed, alongside other health bills already at various stages of the legislative process.

Under the Universal Healthcare mission of the Programme for Government, legislative priorities listed include: •

legislating for public-only work in public hospitals;

•

enacting the Patient Safety (Notifiable Patient Safety Incidents) Bill 2019;

•

enacting the National Research Ethics Committee Bill;

•

enacting the Human Tissue Bill;

•

enacting the Assisted Human Reproduction Bill;

Priority health legislation for publication 1. Central Mental Hospital (Relocation) Bill: Will provide a legislative basis for the relocation of the Central Mental Hospital from Dundrum to Portrane Status: The Bill is currently before Seanad Éireann, Second Stage 2. Health Act 1947 (Amendment) Bill: Will amend the Health Act 1947 and provide a more tiered set of penalties for Covid-19 issues than currently provided for under Section 31A. Status: Enacted 25 October 2020

•

introducing a Public Health Obesity Act;

•

updating the Mental Health Act 2001; and

•

enacting legislation to implement the revised Nursing Homes Support Scheme.

Largely aligning with the Programme for Government, the legislative programme for autumn session as outlined by the Office of the Government Chief Whip Jack Chambers TD is divided into six distinct categories of progression.

The legislative programme for the autumn session is signed off by cabinet following consultation with government departments, officials and the Attorney General. So far, three bills relating to health have been enacted since the Government came to office.

3. Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill: Will provide for revised risk equalisation credits and corresponding stamp duty levies to apply to health insurance polices and technical amendments to the Health Insurance Acts.

Status: The Bill has completed Dáil Éireann, Fifth Stage 4. Nursing Home Support Scheme (Amendment) Bill: Will give effect to the recommendation of the Fair Deal Review and deliver on Programme for Government commitment.

Status: Heads approved 11 June 2019. Pre-legislative scrutiny has taken place. (The Bill has lapsed with the dissolution of the 32nd Dáil and 26th Seanad.)

Health bills that are expected to undergo pre-legislative scrutiny 1. Central Mental Hospital (Relocation) Bill: Will provide a legislative basis for the relocation of the Central Mental Hospital from Dundrum to Portrane.

Status: The Bill is currently before Seanad Éireann, Second Stage 2. Health Act 1947 (Amendment) Bill: Will amend the Health Act 1947 and provide a more tiered set of penalties for Covid-19 issues than currently provided for under Section 31A. Status: Enacted 25 October 2020 3. Health Bill: Will amend the Health Act 2004 to provide for changes to corporate and service planning processes for the HSE and further board and CEO functions while also amending the National Cancer Registry Board (Establishment) Order 1991 to increase Board membership.

Status: Heads in preparation.

4. Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill: Will provide for revised risk equalisation credits and corresponding stamp duty levies to apply to health insurance policies and technical amendments to the Health Insurance Acts.

Status: The Bill has completed Dáil Éireann, Fifth Stage 5. Public Health (Tobacco and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill: Will introduce a licensing system for the sale of tobacco and nicotine inhaling products, including e-cigarettes.

Status: Heads approved 22 October 2019. Pre-legislative scrutiny still to be determined. (The Bill has lapsed with the dissolution of the 32nd Dáil and 25th Seanad.)

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Freedom to innovate

All other legislation

Health bills currently on the Dáil and Seanad order papers

1. Assisted Human Reproduction Bill: Will provide a legislative framework for the regulation of assisted human reproduction practices and associated research.

Patient Safety (Notifiable Patient Safety Incidents) Bill 2019 Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2020

health report

Status: Heads approved 3 October 2017. Pre-legislative scrutiny has taken place

Mental Health Parity of Esteem Bill 2020 Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Amendment) Bill 2020

2. Health (Adult Safeguarding) Bill: Will underpin a plan national health sector policy on safeguarding vulnerable or at-risk adults in the context of their interaction with the health sector.

Health (Amendment) (Professional Home Care) Bill 2020

Status: Preparatory work is underway

Health bills which were published since the Government came to office

3. Human Tissues (Transplantation, Post-Mortem, Anatomical Examination and Public Display) Bill: Will legislate for an opt-out system of consent for deceased organ donation, post-mortem practices and procedures, anatomical examination, education and training and public display of bodies.

Health (General Practitioner Service and Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) Bill 2020 Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2020

Status: Heads approved 1 May 2019. Pre-legislative scrutiny has taken place

Health (Amendment) Act 2020

4. Mental Health (Amendment) Bill: Will amend the Mental Health Act 2001 to give effect to recommendations made by an Expert Group Review on mental health legislation.

Health bills which were enacted since the Government came to office

Status: Final heads in preparation 5. National Research Ethics Committees Bill: Will reform and modernise the current Research Ethics Committee (REC) framework in Ireland by providing for the establishment of national RECs.

Health (General Practitioner Service and Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) Act 2020 Regulated Professions (Health and Social Care) (Amendment) Bill 2019

Status: Heads approved 25 July 2019. Pre-legislative scrutiny waived

Health (Amendment) Act 2020

6. Patient Safety Licensing Bill: Will provide for a mandatory system of licensing for public and private healthcare facilities.

Status: Heads approved 12 December 2017. Pre-legislative scrutiny has taken place 7. Protections of Liberty Safeguards Bill: Will provide legislative clarity on the issue of deprivation of liberty safeguards.

Meanwhile, additional health legislation sponsored by a Private Member include: •

the Mental Health Parity of Esteem Bill 2020 which is sponsored by Sinn Féin’s Mark Ward TD. If enacted, the Bill will place mental health on parity with physical health, improve provision of mental health services and increase the quality of mental health care. The Bill is currently before Dáil Éireann, Second Stage;

•

the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Amendment) Bill 2020 which is sponsored by Sinn Féin’s Louise O’Reilly TD. If enacted, the Bill will amend the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 by inserting a section requiring employers to treat Covid-19 as an occupational illness and report any occurrences in the workplace to the Health and Safety Authority. The Bill is currently before Dáil Éireann, Second Stage; and

•

the Health (Amendment) (Professional Home Care) Bill 2020 which is sponsored by Fine Gael’s Colm Burke TD and Emer Higgins TD. If enacted, the Bill will amend the Health Act 2007 and provide for the regulation of professional home care. The Bill is currently before Dáil Éireann, Second Stage.

Status: Heads in preparation 8. Public Health (Calorie Posting and Workplace Wellbeing) Bill: Will require food premises to display calories on menus and all public sector employers to have and report on a health and wellbeing policy.

Status: Preparatory work is underway 9. Safe Access Bill: Will ensure safe access to premises at which termination of pregnancy services are provided.

Status: Preparatory work is underway 10. Support for Irish Survivors of Thalidomide Bill: Will provide a package of health and personal social services and other supports to survivors of thalidomide.

Status: Preparatory work is underway

*As at 11 December 2020 57

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The future of the Irish Blood Transfusion Service emergence of a new virus or infectious disease and we continue to focus our efforts on minimising this risk. Ironically, what we learned this year is that a virus, even one which is not transmitted through transfusion, can pose a threat and potentially disrupt our blood supply.

“Traditionally, IBTS clinics ran on a ‘walk in’ basis, this meant that regular donors, eligible to donate, would be texted and invited to attend a clinic and new donors would also be welcome. The arrival of Covid-19 meant we had to rethink how we could continue to collect blood safely for both donors and staff and implement those changes rapidly.

The Irish Blood Transfusion Service’s (IBTS) new Chief Executive, Orla O’Brien, and Medical and Scientific Director, Professor Stephen Field, speak to eolas about how the statutory body responsible for the national blood supply has dealt with the Covid-19 crisis and their hopes for how it will evolve in 2021.

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Having started her new role in June 2020, just as Ireland was emerging from the first wave of Covid-19 public health restrictions, Orla O’Brien reflects on a “baptism of fire” of sorts as the wellestablished modes of working in blood transfusion were forced to adapt. “I was in the unique position as I took over as we were coming out of restrictions,” she says. “As I arrived the IBTS had rapidly changed how it approached its core business. That core business for which the IBTS, as a national organisation, is 58

responsible for is collecting, processing, testing and distributing blood and blood products in Ireland.

The IBTS operates within a highly regulated environment. Only blood, which has been donated by appropriately selected donors and has been tested for known transfusion transmissible infectious agents, can be issued for transfusion. It remains the case that the perhaps the greatest threat to the provision of safe blood is the

“When I joined the IBTS, the model had changed, almost overnight, to an appointment-based system for donors. It took an enormous effort from a number of teams to do that and I was privileged to witness staff going over and above what they were normally doing. I saw leadership, determination and a really intent focus on our mission to provide excellent blood and tissue services that improve patients’ lives. I was very inspired by that and it was great to see.”

O’Brien is aware that the need for donors to voluntarily leave their homes and donate blood was a particularly “unusual” ask given that government instructions were to stay and home and limit contacts, but she pays tribute to those who “answered that call”. “We couldn’t have maintained the blood supply without them,” she asserts.

June 2020 was an interesting time for an externally recruited individual to join the IBTS as Chief Executive, and O’Brien speaks of the admiration she felt for the staff involved as she got to grips with her new role. “I witnessed incredible agility and resilience from our frontline staff, especially those in the labs and clinics who had to come into work every day,” she says. “One of the challenges for me was how I was going to be able to provide strong leadership and support to them when they didn’t know me.

“My leadership style is very much based on empathy and authenticity, so my approach was informed by the fact that none of us had been through a crisis quite like this before and therefore could not predict the outcome. I was walking the same road with them and rolling up my sleeves to help in every way I could.”

Elaborating, Stephen Field, the IBTS’ Medical and Scientific Director discusses those future plans for the statutory body. His first priority is the further streamlining of the clinic setting, with health questionnaires moving to an electronic format on tablets or even to online settings in order to allow for their completion shortly before appointments.

There is an imperative to facilitate specific blood types for the growing population in Ireland who suffer from sickle cell anaemia.

“Almost all of these are of AfroCaribbean descent and their blood typing frequencies are slightly different to that of the indigenous Irish population; their Rh type is slightly differently configured and we need to give them Rh negative blood when they are anaemic,” he says. “This adds extra demand on our O Negative donors in Ireland which leads to them being called disproportionally more than other donors. However, we can get around this if we can recruit more donors from the Afro-Caribbean community.” To enable this, malaria antibody testing, a necessity given the possibility of those from endemic areas carrying low level parasites, will be rolled out in 2021.

“There are areas where safety can be further enhanced and one of those is the storing of platelets, which are stored at room temperature. This means that there may be a small growth of bacteria if there has been a contamination at the time of donation. There are ways to minimise this and we screen cultures

using a bacterial method, but an additional safety step would be the introduction of pathogen reduction, a process whereby we treat the product with a compound that would render any bacteria within the unit sterile. We plan to introduce a process of pathogen reduction into our platelet components within the next few years.”

Other priorities include the reestablishment of an Irish Eye Bank, as an alternative to the importation of corneas from the USA. The Service needs to develop genetic sequencing methods that allow screening of the donor population for multiple blood groups and thus allow better matching with patients. There is also a renewed focus on R&D so that the IBTS “can do its own research and development and place the Irish context on transfusion medicine”.

“We need about 3,000 donations of blood every week; one in four of us will need a transfusion at some point in our lives but we take it for granted that blood will be available for us should we need it. With the onset of the Covid-19 crisis we still needed to ensure that the blood supply met the demand irrespective of the fact that so many people were “locked down” in their homes,” O’Brien says.

“Of the population in Ireland today, roughly 2.8 million are eligible to give blood or platelets. Currently, only 3 per cent of us do. In 2019, around 1,000 people reached either a 50 or 100

donation milestone. That’s an incredible achievement and shows the loyalty of those individuals who have, for years, given their blood or platelets and their time. While some of these donors are in the older age groups, one of the challenges for us now is to attract younger people and encourage them to develop an ongoing donor relationship with us.”

Concluding on a hopeful note, the new Chief Executive issues a call to action: “Normally we would have about 17,00018,000 first-time donors every year but because of the Covid-19 crisis that’s down 60 per cent this year. That’s not a problem right now but it might be in a few years’ time. Our ask would be that people who have not considered it previously would think about becoming a blood donor. I am very optimistic about the future; I have a high level of confidence that we can meet any challenge in front of us as we navigate our way out of the pandemic. One of our greatest assets is our people, who have shown incredible commitment during this time. We also have the unwavering support and generosity of our donors, who have continued to turn out, when we asked them to. I am filled with optimism for the future of IBTS.”

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Safety is also a concern for Field, who explains: “We have a world-class testing system, with nucleic acid testing for the RNA or DNA of viruses, a very sensitive method of screening blood. Whereas many other blood services around the world pool several samples together, we believe in testing each individual sample, which makes it extremely sensitive.

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“Despite the Covid-19 crisis I was keen that, as an organisation, we continued our work to develop a new strategic plan in 2020. I felt that was something that we needed to do because 2021 will be another disrupted year and we would need a clear strategic direction to focus on.”

T: +353 1850 731 137 W: www.giveblood.ie

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Budget 2021: Key health figures health report

Budget 2021 increased the health budget by €4 billion, the largest budget increase in the history of the State. In 2021, health expenditure will total €21 billion alongside an additional capital spending of €1 billion.

€100 million for people with a disability €38 million for new mental health services €318 million to improve access to care including a new Access to Care fund

€467 million to permanently fund 2,600 beds in acute and community settings, including €52 million for critical care beds

€1.7 billion to protect health care workers, vulnerable groups and public from the impacts of Covid-19

€425 million to deliver enhanced community and social care services including an additional five million home care hours

€147 million to reform the way care is delivered through the accelerated implementation of national

€20 million for Healthy Ireland

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€50 million for new drugs

16,000 new posts in the health workforce

Freedom to innovate

Health at a glance health report

An annual report on the state of healthcare in Europe and further afield has found that Ireland had the longest lockdown in Europe for non-essential retail, pubs and restaurants and the second highest per capita health spend as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) annual report, Health at a Glance, found that Ireland had the longest lockdown for what they term public spaces (parks, restaurants, pubs, cinemas, non-essential shops) with services closed for 120 days from 12 March. The closest countries in terms of length were Finland, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Estonia, who shut public spaces for 74, 66, 65 and 65 days respectively.

Ireland was also one of only six countries of the 36 reported on to close both primary and secondary schools up to the summer holidays, the other five being Bulgaria, Finland, Italy, Spain and Latvia. The Health at a Glance report compiles and compares the health policies of 36 countries, including the EU27, the UK, Turkey, Switzerland and Norway.

Alarmingly, the report states that Ireland had the lowest number of ICU beds in Europe before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, with just five beds per 100,000 people; in contrast, the EU14 (members prior to 2004) had an average of 12.9 beds per 100,000 people, with Germany ranking highest with 34 beds per 100,000. By combining data of the maximum daily number of Covid-19 patients occupying ICU beds in the first half of the year and the estimates of total ICU beds, the report manages to give insight into countries’ resilience to the outbreak.

By doing so, the OECD estimates that 80 per cent of regular pre-crisis ICU beds in Italy would have been occupied

by Covid-19 patients. For Belgium,

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Ireland and France, this figure is 65 per cent. Ireland, as the report notes, added 399 new ICU beds to its capacity during the pandemic, an extra 8.1 beds per 100,000 people. Only Germany and the United Kingdom were found to have higher levels of postCovid health expenditure than Ireland, with €302 and €446 per capita spent respectively as compared to Ireland’s €274 per capita. However, it must be noted that the data used for Ireland’s expenditure ceases on 12 May, while Germany’s does so on 18 September and the UK’s does so on 8 July.

Despite the high level of spending per capita, the long lockdown and the increase in ICU bed capacity, Ireland still had the third highest death rate in Europe for over 65s relative to population. By early October, the rate in Ireland was 2,359 deaths per million.

Only Belgium (4,343 deaths per million) and the UK (4,302 deaths per million) fared worse in this regard. Up to the end of October, Ireland’s overall death rate per million sat at 390, slightly above the EU average of 380 deaths per million. However, Ireland’s rate is not near the worst of the death rates per million, with Belgium (1,015 per million), Spain (764) and the UK (699) making up the three worst affected states in this regard.

Of the countries surveyed, Ireland again is not among the worst affected in terms of confirmed Covid cases per one million. A rate of 12,531 places it on better footing than France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Spain, which all have cases in the 20,000s per one million, as well as Belgium and the Czech Republic, who

have both recorded confirmed case numbers in the 30,000s per one million.

Ireland is the only one of the countries reported on where excess mortality figures and rates are not supplied. As a whole, the EU27/26 recorded 164,612 excess deaths from March to June, at a rate of 372 per million people. Notably, Bulgaria Croatia, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Norway, Romania and the Slovak Republic have all managed to reverse trends and record less deaths than would be typically expected.

Among the 22 European countries who supplied data available by age group, deaths of people aged 60/65 and over were on average 3.7 times higher than the overall population. 90 per cent of Covid-19 deaths occurred in the population aged 60/65 and over, with those aged 80 and over accounting for roughly half of all Covid-19 deaths. In terms of total deaths of those aged 60 and over, the UK, Italy, Spain and France all reported over 17,000 deaths as of mid-September.

In 13 European countries with available data, there were 75,000 deaths among residents of long-term care facilities.

The report notes that absolute numbers of deaths of long-term care residents were particularly high in the UK (25,466 deaths), Spain (20,649 deaths) and France (14,955 deaths), “all countries that suffered heavily from Covid-19”.

When adjusted for population size, deaths among the residents of longterm care facilities were equivalent to over 5,000 deaths per million people aged 80 or over in Belgium, the UK, Spain, Ireland and Sweden. Deaths among residents of long-term care facilities accounted for over half of all

Freedom to innovate Daily number of tests per 100,000 population 30 days after the country recorded 10 deaths per million population (averaged over a week) 500

400 350

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Total per 100,000 of the population

450

300 250 200 150 100 50

m do

ni a

in g

to ite

dK

Es

iu m Be lg

m xe

Un

EU

Lu

25

Po

av

er

bo

ur

ag

g

e

l ga rtu

d Ice

lan

d lan Ire

lta Ma

in Sp a

ni a Li th

ua

ds er th

Ne

Sw e

lan

de

k De n

m

ar

y an rm Ge

n

0

Country

(Source: OECD)

reported Covid-19 deaths in Spain, Belgium, Ireland and Norway.

to mitigate the economic and health impacts of the pandemic.

are cited as countries that “were better

The report notes that Europe had had two major waves of infection by the time of its publication, with 10 million confirmed cases and 265,000 with rates of death estimated between 0.17 per cent and 1.7 per cent. The report also notes that some countries, both within and outside of Europe, have managed

Outside of Europe, Korea is cited as a “good example of a country that has managed to control the Covid-19 outbreak through quick, effective and targeted measures, thereby avoiding full lockdowns”. New Zealand is cited as “another successful example”. In Europe, Norway, Finland and Estonia

and mitigate the economic

able to contain the spread of the virus

consequences, in part because of geographic factors (lower population density) but also because of timely implementation of targeted containment measures, and strong trust and compliance by populations”.

Number of days to bring estimated R rate below one 70 60

Days

50 40 30 20 10 0 Sweden

United Kingdom

France

Poland

Finland Netherlands Belgium

Country

Italy

Denmark

Germany

Hungary

Ireland

Romania

(Source: OECD)

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Delivering responsive nursing and midwifery regulation during a pandemic

health report

qualified nurses and midwives who were retired and on career breaks from all over Ireland. We were also dealing with regulators and relevant bodies daily in Ireland and abroad, to support faster processing of certificates of good standing, qualifications and language competency for those coming from the UK and beyond. This was only possible due to the immense commitment and dedication of our staff.

Education

Sheila McClelland, the CEO of the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland (NMBI) reflects on how far the organisation has come, delivering business continuity and regulatory responsiveness during a pandemic. But the organisation is also focused on its digitisation and modernisation agenda in 2020, with the roll out of MyNMBI for nurses and midwives.

The role of NMBI during Covid-19 As the regulator for nurses and midwives in Ireland, our mission is to protect the public and the integrity of the professions of nursing and midwifery.

We focus on three areas specifically: - Publication and maintenance of the Register of Nurses and Midwives and the Candidate Register; - Education standards and requirements; and

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- Complaints about the practice or behaviour of a nurse or midwife.

In a time of crisis, this statutory duty is magnified and has created a real sense of purpose among the staff of NMBI to deliver, and be part of, the national response.

There is no doubt that 2020 saw significant challenges for our business as we strove to understand and respond to Covid-19. The provision of registered nurses and midwives into the healthcare system was, and is, crucial. We worked 64

with our partners to contribute to the national response by exploring new methods of registering and restoring nurses and midwives. We also worked with the Department of Health, the HSE and the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) responsible for nursing and midwifery programmes to better support students during Covid-19.

Registration In the month of March 2020 alone 1,169 nurses were added to the Register, and 385 were new registrants. The implementation of the Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Covid19) Act 2020 meant that previous registrants could be restored to the Register without incurring any restoration fees. This measure facilitated 784 in returning to the Register. By scaling up and increased flexibility, our staff were able to process 80 applications daily. As well as those who came to us directly, NMBI confirmed the registration status of over 500 applicants who applied to the ‘On Call for Ireland’ campaign through the HSE. We restored

NMBI recognised that the challenges presented in the provision of healthcare services, and in some cases the reconfiguration of services during Covid19, had the potential to impact on student learning and the achievement of competencies to join the Register. The priority for NMBI during the pandemic, as it evolved, was to assist the education and healthcare systems to support student nurses and midwives learning while ensuring that the standards of the education experience were retained. In order to address the challenges for both the education providers and the health service, NMBI has worked with them to explore how students can achieve the competencies for registration, while not compromising on the standards of the programmes.

Many new opportunities presented during Covid-19 for students to achieve the learning outcomes of the nursing and midwifery programmes. We were able to explore these opportunities for undergraduate student clinical placements and provide guidance on how the competencies can be achieved.

This includes remote environments and Telehealth. These experiences can be taken as learning events and captured by portfolio, reflective of the people encountered, the care assessed and provided, and the outcome for transferable learning. It is not the setting that is important, but the care experience for the patient/client or the learning opportunity experienced. This means that we encouraged placements that demonstrate integration of care and enhanced collaboration between the hospital system and community services, and this has been embedded.

While we gave guidance on possibilities for new opportunities in the programme,

we also asked the education providers to inform us of the moderations and experiences that they implemented including changes to the approved assessments for students.

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The continuance of quality and safe education for all the student nurses and midwives in the system has remained a key objective for the NMBI. We were delighted to ensure that a responsive approach to regulation of education, including providing for absence due to certified Covid-19 related absence, assisted the healthcare system and the students to achieve valuable learning experiences.

Our steps towards modernisation Throughout the year our own journey to provide a modern model of service provision and regulation continued.

I believe it is important to embrace technology and drive positive change. In September 2020, we launched the first phase of MyNMBI, our new digital platform designed to streamline and improve processes for our registrants and stakeholders. The system allows NMBI to deliver more efficient and accessible services in areas such as online registration services, paper-free document management, efficient and transparent application processing, and enhanced reporting. The platform will deliver an integrated system which ensures that applicants and registrants can avail of a wider range of self-service options. This is a significant milestone in the progression of NMBI as a more efficient and effective regulator.

Some of the key benefits for users of MyNMBI include: • Applicants can complete the entire registration application process online;

• Employers can check the Register of Nurses and Midwives and the Candidate Register online. Both Registers, are updated in real time and are searchable on the NMBI website; and • MyNMBI also delivers improved

MyNMBI will grow to support many other aspects of what we do, enabling us to better deliver on our mandate of upholding the high standards of nursing and midwifery in Ireland and ensuring public safety.

Phase one was introduced to students and graduates who completed their entire registration application process online. The Education module will be implemented in 2021 making further functionality available to HEIs and clinical sites.

to a complaint and we recognise the need for improvements regarding timelines. On 14 October 2020, the Regulated Professions (Health and Social Care) (Amendment) Act 2020 was signed into law which will enable us to process complaints more efficiently, in conjunction with our digitisation of Fitness to Practise processes.

T: 01 639 8500 W: www.nmbi.ie E: communications@nmbi.ie

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• Registrants can pay their annual renewal, update personal information, request Certificates of Professional Status (CCPS) online. The new approach will eliminate paper from our processes allowing registrant to access certificates and documents online;

reporting capabilities which will allow NMBI to gain accurate data reporting, giving greater insight into the nursing and midwifery professions and enable us to make more informed policy.

This will be followed by digitisation of Fitness to Practise processes. As the regulator, we are legally responsible for considering complaints against nurses and midwives who practise in Ireland. A complaint is serious, and our aim is to guide people through the process with sensitivity. We understand this is an anxious time for those who are subject 65

Freedom to innovate

Irish health statistics health report

Health status

13.5% 84%

82.3

of adults rate their own health as very good or good

of the population have a disability

average life expectancy

1.75

76%

of people rate their quality of sleep as very good or good

Total Fertility Rate in 2018

Risk factors

46%

60%

of adults achieve the minimum level of recommended physical activity

17%

11 litres

of pure alcohol consumed per capita, per annum

of adults are classified as overweight or obese

of the population are current smokers

Healthcare usage

73% 66

have visited a GP in the past 12 months

32.4% of the population have a medical card

21%

have visited at least one of seven types of health services in the past 12 months

Freedom to innovate

Caring responsibilities

16%

provide regular unpaid personal care

health report

9%

of those aged 45–54 are a carer

57%

of carers report that they are providing care to a parent or parent-in-law

Prevalence of certain health conditions

13% 10% 10% 7% have high blood pressure

have arthritis

have high cholesterol

have asthma

Principal causes of death Ages 0–64

32.5% 19.1% 18% non-respiratory cancers

diseases of the circulatory system

other causes

6%

have depression or anxiety

15.7% external causes of injury and poisoning

14.6% respiratory diseases

Source: Healthy Ireland Survey, 2019

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health report

Our response to Covid-19 is breaking down walls: let’s build something better, together avoiding on-street inner city parking and crowded waiting rooms. Both simple, safer processes, that were technically possible, but not enabled, before the Covid-19 crisis.

Great healthcare services require swift collaboration among many stakeholders. The crisis, and the devastating pressure it has put our healthcare workers and their patients under, has made enabling that collaboration a priority, writes David Clancy, Director and General Manager of Cerner Ireland.

Healthcare has been in a state of constant, incremental reform for as long as most of us can remember.

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The need for a change in how we deliver services has long been universally accepted, although the definition of what ‘change’ should entail, and what areas should be prioritised, has not. This is not surprising given the breadth of stakeholder involvement: the more stakeholders that need to change, the slower that change will usually be.

But the pandemic doesn’t care about stakeholders, change management or healthcare reform. It doesn’t care about specialities or venues of care. Given the chance, it will impact all of us, everywhere, and now.

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The impact of the crisis and its immediacy has enabled the healthcare system and those that manage it to remove many barriers to great healthcare that otherwise would still exist today. It’s also highlighted how quickly real progress can be made.

A change in expectations In just a short period of time, we as healthcare consumers now expect our pharmacies to have our prescriptions ready, with neither the pharmacist nor the patient necessarily having to physically visit the GP. As parents, we expect to discuss our child’s X-ray results with her paediatrician virtually,

We also expect our hospital carers to have access to the tools, resources and information to keep both us and them as safe as possible. To that end, we’ve witnessed amazing achievements and collaboration. For example, in the UK, Middle East and U.S., digitally mature hospitals have enabled non-affiliated hospitals to use their proven electronic health records, clinical support tools and patient engagement tools in weeks and months, rather than months and years.

Whole hospital networks, that otherwise may never have collaborated, have urgently come together to share epidemiological data, accelerating research and clinical trials, for the benefit of us all. Governance structures have been quickly established to enable change, rather than used as an excuse not to.

The great news is that the evidence shows we can make significant leaps, together and quickly, when we are enabled to do so.

Ireland’s evidence for sustainable change Sláintecare, our national blueprint for healthcare reform, identifies technology as a key enabler of meaningful reform.

Against the background of positive policy proclamations, there has also been an increase in appetite for our key enablers, our people, to get themselves ready and involved in technologyenabled change. There has been excellent work done at an institutional level to create digital academies, forums, knowledge-sharing frameworks and accredited professional courses in digital health and related disciplines.

Closer to the coalface, we’ve seen some great wins on a national departmental solution level (e.g. in radiology and patient administration), with delivery not

health report

only benefiting patients, but giving realworld experience to HSE, voluntary hospital and other staff. This experience surely played a key role in enabling the rapid deployment of virtual care, and the testing and resulting programmes, in response to Covid-19. This is something that all involved should be proud of.

We also now have a handful of truly digitally enabled hospitals in Ireland, where doctors, nurses, pharmacists, HSCPs and administrators have configured solutions to meet Irish healthcare standards. They have multiple international peer-reviewed publications and value statements on how this has led to increased time to care and increased patient safety. And they have created tomes of publicly available information on lessons learned for further rollouts. The foundations for quick, effective transformation are stronger now than they have ever.

A seamless and connected world, where everyone thrives

For our part, Cerner’s focus in Ireland for 2021 and beyond will be in two key areas: delivering and sharing.

On the delivery front, we’ll be helping the HSE and hospitals make a success of our national laboratory and order communications programme, known as MedLIS. The potential benefit of a single national, shared laboratory record is

We will support our oldest partners in Ireland, St James’s Hospital, as they enhance their digital footprint and focus on delivering additional capacity and benefits in the treatment of their patient population.

And not only is the Maternal and Newborn Clinical Management System (MN-CMS) helping to deliver 40 per cent of Ireland’s babies, the client team are also delivering world-class research regarding pregnancy and the treatment of mums and their infants. There is so much more that can be done there too.

For our other focus, I want us to do a better job of sharing the learnings from our Irish and global clients. We’ve had hospital systems from six different countries visit Cork and Dublin. In 2021, we’d like more Irish healthcare providers to see what our Irish clients have achieved to date and see what they themselves could leverage.

This year has proven we can achieve great things quickly; next year can be when we accelerate and embed technology enabled healthcare reform, together.

About David Clancy David was an economist focusing on the impact of population aging, before moving into the connected health space as a management consultant. Before joining Cerner in 2015, he worked in healthcare start-ups and for Change Healthcare. He lives near Glendalough in County Wicklow, with Mairead and their three girls.

About Cerner in Ireland Cerner believes in building positive, long-term partnerships that drive value across the health and care landscape.

Our intelligent platforms and services connect people, information and care at 27,000+ facilities of all sizes worldwide and help manage the health of 110 million citizens across the globe.

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While Covid-19 will remain with us for the short-term, its direct and indirect impact on our healthcare system will be felt for a generation. Therefore, it must be considered both a political and social priority to not only build on what work has been done before, but also to accelerate and sustain it. Many of the stars are aligned in Ireland to make this happen.

immense, for patients and the multiple community and acute services that depend on accurate and timely pathology results.

We’ve been in Ireland since 2004, growing from a European global support hub into a centre for research and development and local client delivery office. Over 8,000 Irish healthcare professionals have used Cerner’s solutions in the past year.

W: www.cerner.ie Twitter: @CernerIRL 69

Freedom to innovate

Vaccine taskforce to strategise rollout

health report

taskforce include Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan, HSE Chief Executive Paul Reid, Chairwoman of the senior officials group on Covid-19 Liz Canavan, Government Chief Information Officer Barry Lowry and Government Chief Procurement Officer Paul Quinn.

On announcing the makeup of the taskforce, Taoiseach Micheál Martin added that “there will be a nominee yet to be confirmed from the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, a logistics cold chain expert and a project management expert”. Martin told the Dáil that the taskforce “will be tasked with coordinating preparations and ensuring the nationwide rollout of a Covid-19 vaccine when one is safe and ready to be distributed”. No concrete indicators have been given as to when that may be.

As news of various vaccines for Covid-19 breaks worldwide, Ireland has assembled a vaccine taskforce to provide information about any forthcoming vaccine when it is “available and accurate”.

News of three successful trials for vaccines broke in November, with Pfizer-BioNTech reporting a 95 per cent success rate with their vaccine, Moderna reporting 94.5 per cent efficacy and Oxford University reporting a 70 per cent success rate for their vaccine, but this rate was found to rise to 90 per cent when administered in a half dose and followed by a full dose a month later. Regulators in the United States are due to meet in early December to discuss whether or not to authorise the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech for emergency use.

In November, the Government’s vaccine 70

taskforce chairman, Professor Brian MacCraith said: “We got really excellent news this week, albeit by press release.

I think there’s great excitement about the indicators of at least three of the vaccines; the Oxford University one, the Moderna one and the Pfizer one. Really strong indicators.”

The Government taskforce was established in early November under the chairmanship of the Department of Health, with Ireland due to receive approximately 1 per cent of the vaccines made available in Europe through the procurement process. Aside from former Dublin City University president MacCraith, others involved in the

Speaking weeks later, Martin said that MacCraith hoped to have a rollout strategy ready for Government review by 11 December, with logistics such as who might be able to administer the vaccine outside of pharmacies and GPs to be worked out. The Taoiseach said: “It will require a national effort to get the vaccines out properly and safely and we are working with all stakeholders and people generally to cooperate with us.

Again, a bit like inter-agency cooperation on Brexit, we will need inter-agency cooperation. All hands on deck for a national effort around the vaccine as well.”

Also within the taskforce’s remit is the decision around what groups will be vaccinated first, which was announced in early December after the vaccine was first administered elsewhere. The order of groups has been broken down into 15 groups, with those aged 65 and over in long-term care facilities coming in first, frontline healthcare workers in direct patient contact next and those aged 70 and over third. Key workers are sixth on the list, with residents of long-term care facilities aged 18-64 eighth and those with essential jobs who cannot avoid contact tenth. The last group to be vaccinated will be people aged under 18 and pregnant women.

Education and skills report

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Credit: Merrion Street

education and skills report

Minister for Education Norma Foley TD Upon its formation, the tri-party Government recognised the role that education will play in the post-Covid-19 recovery. eolas explores the initial tenure of the Minister for Education Norma Foley TD and examines the education portfolio’s priorities for the time ahead.

Having floundered in an interview with the Sunday Independent shortly after her appointment as Minister for Education in June 2020, Norma Foley has quietly endeavoured to get to grips with her portfolio.

The first-time TD was a surprise selection among the Fianna Fáil cabinet cohort in the coalition Government.

However, as successor to Fine Gael’s Joe McHugh TD, Foley is a seasoned public representative. A post-primary teacher by trade, the Kerry woman previously served as a member of Kerry County Council for the Tralee area, from 1994 until her ascent to the Dáil in 2020.

Covid-19 response The Department of Education exists to provide a policy, legislative and funding framework for the national education and training system. Throughout 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic radically altered the context in which this system operates. As such, the focus and resources of the department have been required to pivot accordingly to facilitate the continuity of learning, assessment and inclusion for students.

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In total, the Minister for Education delivered on four major objectives with broad success amid the Covid crisis.

1. Widening the eligibility criteria and delivering the Summer Provision 2020 programme: In July, the Department published the Home-Based Summer Provision 2020: Reconnecting with Education programme for children with complex special educational needs.

The expanded programme was widened to provide for around 15,000 children (5,000 more than the traditional July Provision) and its central objective was to prepare students for the reopening of schools.

2. Reopening schools that had been closed since 12 March 2020: In late August and early September 2020, the State’s 4,000 primary and post-primary schools successfully reopened. Through Reopening Our Schools: The Roadmap for the Full Return to School, the Department of Education provided a financial package of €377 million to support the safe and sustainable reopening of schools for over one million students and 110,000 staff.

3. Delivering calculated grades for Leaving Certificate students: Initially postponed (10 April 2020) the Leaving Cert was subsequently cancelled entirely (8 May 2020), and 61,000 students were assessed through a calculated grades system. Teachers were required to “to draw on existing records and available evidence, to provide a fair, reasonable and carefully considered judgment of the most likely percentage mark that each student would have achieved”. School leavers subsequently accessed their Leaving Cert grades online.

However, errors were later identified in the calculated grades system.

This problem was exacerbated by Foley’s delay in informing her Cabinet colleagues. As a result, a total of 6,870 grades increased, affecting 6,100 students.

4. Keeping schools open during the introduction of Level 5 public health restrictions: Ensuring that schools remain open and that students can continue to safely attend school is a key government priority. Following the introduction of Level 5 restrictions in October

Education in the PfG Additional educational ambitions for the Government are contained within the Programme for Government (PfG) and include “striving for education excellence”. As such, the Government has committed to establishing a Citizens’ Assembly on the Future of Education at primary and post-primary level, developing a Digital Education Strategy, reviewing and reforming both the primary and post-primary curricula and establishing a new Education Research and Policy Section within the Department.

The PfG also pledges to ensure plurality and choice in education, support for Gaeilge in education, support for school staff and the creation of a sustainable vision for school transport.

Strategic challenges and opportunities Looking ahead, the Minister’s Brief prepared by the Department of Education on behalf of the incoming Minister highlights several ongoing strategic challenges and opportunities for schools in Ireland.

Resourcing and demographics Amid service pressures and wider expenditure pressures across line departments, the budgetary position remains a challenge in education. For instance, demographic changes often precede sustainability, workforce planning, school accommodation and transport challenges, necessitating a comprehensive policy response.

Projections indicate that primary enrolments will decrease, and postprimary enrolments increase up until 2024, while third level education will grow significantly in the 2020s. Student numbers and staffing represent the two

“This Government’s first budget demonstrates clearly our commitment to, and support for, schools and our students.”

Minister for Education Norma Foley TD major drivers of school costs.

Simultaneously, demographic pressures have a direct impact on school accommodation capacity and therefore on capital expenditure.

developing school leadership and fostering a culture firmly focused on maintaining high-quality outcomes for students.

Additional budgetary pressures include school transport expenditure and pension costs. The latter pressures are projected to increase for the foreseeable future.

Inclusion

The Department of Education’s budget for 2021 is €8.9 billion, an increase of €410 million (5 per cent) on 2020. Upon the announcement of Budget 2021, Minister Foley stated: “This Government’s first budget demonstrates clearly our commitment to, and support for, schools and our students. With this significant new investment, we will continue to improve the experience of our children in education, and provide improved practical supports, particularly in light of Covid-19.

“I am delighted to announce that I have secured in this Budget the funding to reduce the pupil teacher ratio and class sizes.”

Curriculum and assessment A second objective is to develop greater coherence in education from early years to post-primary level. However, there is an acknowledgement that content and approach to teaching and assessment can be subject to contention. As such, the development and implementation of change in this sphere is complex.

Specific objectives include a redevelopment of the early years and primary curricula, continued implementation of junior cycle reform and the publication of an NCCA advisory report on senior cycle reform.

Quality of learning experience The enhancement of quality and performance across the education system is regarded as critical. To that end, the focus is primarily on augmenting the professionalisation of teaching, effective teacher education,

education and skills report

2020, Foley reaffirmed her commitment to the safe operation of schools, and they remained open. “A significant factor in the decision to move to Level 5 is that by doing so we can support our schools to continue to operate safely and sustainably during the pandemic. The decision recognises the overwhelming evidence from our public health experts, that schools are a safe environment for our school communities, children and staff members,” she said.

The department recognises that education is a critical component of inclusion and social mobility. While the equity of Ireland’s school system ranks relatively well in the OECD, a gap between DEIS and non-DEIS schools remains.

Within the PfG commitment to address the cost of education as a barrier to participation and a financial burden on families, the Government commits to enacting the Student and Parent Charter Bill and commencing a free schoolbooks pilot.

The PfG identifies education as “the foundation for a more just and equal society”. The Government makes 15 commitments under the objective of supporting an “inclusive and equal education system”. This includes completing the new DEIS identification model, reviewing and expanding the Hot School Meals initiative and publishing a national policy on Initial Teacher Education to enhance access to teaching for people from minority backgrounds.

Similarly, the introduction of the new SNA allocation model has been postponed until September 2021.

However, capacity constraints within the HSE will limit, in the short-term at least, the reengagement of in-school therapy services. Meanwhile, in some schools, there has been difficulty in establishing special educational needs classes.

Overall, education is a complex portfolio facing several ongoing policy and funding challenges. Six months into her tenure, it is too soon to determine whether Norma Foley has an assured handle on her remit. After a shaky start, the Minister secured some early decisive wins for the government, though the delivery was far from flawless.

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education and skills report

Digital transformation in Higher Education: Where to next? reason for undertaking higher education is to be well-positioned for a future career and financial success in later life.

Research shows that a graduate earns on average €250,000 - €330,0001 more over their lifetime than a person who leaves the education system without a third level education. While this statistic would seem to reinforce the perception of enhanced earnings, what has become clear at the same time is that the linear relationship between degree, career, and earnings is now broken.

Covid-19 has accelerated the digital transformation agendas of third level institutions around the world, writes Pat Power, Managing Director, Health and Public Service, Accenture.

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In the early days, staff and students needed to be supported quickly and safely to enable them to work from home and complete their studies remotely. This was followed by extensive planning throughout the summer ahead of the new academic year, where third level institutions put in place digital solutions for online or hybrid campus environments. However, as we moved towards the new academic year, third level institutions across Ireland for the most part moved online based on Government advice. What were once contingency measures quickly became the norm for teachers and students alike.

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1. OECD, 2018

Prior to the pandemic, Irish third level institutions were already implementing their own digital strategies. The question now is whether they should continue with their original plans, albeit at an accelerated pace or if a more radical rethink is required. Based on Accenture’s experience and research, we have developed a framework for planning the next stages of digital transformation for the higher-level education sector. The three key themes of our framework are summarised here.

Value The concept of value surrounding a third level education is changing. A primary

2. Accenture UKI Higher Education Research 2019-2020

People now change careers many times throughout their lifetime. Recent research carried out by Accenture in the UK2 shows that seven in 10 students are kept awake at night worrying about their career prospects after third level education and we believe this to be the same in Ireland. This anxiety is caused by the need for clarity about the next steps following education – career planning, and the need for support in choosing a career suited to them and their skill set – career choice. Third level institutions need to consider a new approach to supporting students as they undertake their education journeys and careers. This includes the changing world of work, their course offerings, and learners’ attitudes towards their future finances.

This is reflected in the third phase of the Human Capital Initiative, a higher education programme intended to future-proof graduates by giving them transversal skills, launched recently by Minister for Further and Higher Education, Simon Harris TD. With 22 projects earmarked for universities, colleges and institutes of technology, the programme will deliver an investment targeted towards increasing capacity in higher education in skills-focused programmes designed to meet priority skills needs.3 As the path from a degree to a career isn’t as apparent as it once was, new models to address this are already

3. www.hea.ie/skills-engagement/human-capital-initiative/

starting to emerge. The US-based Turning Basin Labs use a co-operative model to incentivise their alumni network in helping recent graduates find employment. These new organisations will be a compelling proposition for the career and financially motivated student.

As third level institutions plan for their future and the next stages of digital transformation, value should be at the heart of their approach.

Experience Third level institutions need to consider the student experience when planning for digital transformation. It might be tempting to focus the student experience on a combination of the learning experience (lectures, plenary sessions, seminars etc.), along with sports and social activity. However, this is too limited a model that risks neglecting some of the nuanced, but equally important factors, in a student’s experience. Some of the areas that mean most to the students are:

Relationships Relationships between students forged while in third level education often form one of their most unforgettable experiences. But perhaps equally important are the relationships that the institution helps nurture between students and staff.

Place

Self-organisation Third level education is often seen as a

The learning experience itself will need significant changes as the 2D world we now operate in requires redesign, not translation. Over the last few years, there have been many efforts to bring the third level experience online, focusing on remote learning. However, that experience has generally been poor as third level institutions attempt to replicate the offline experience. We strongly believe that third level institutions have to let go of the offline experience as a format and redesign the student experience from the ground up, with the student experience model and students' needs, and those of the staff, at the heart of the process.

Learning and research Life-long learning Fuelled by the increased accessibility of information and learning opportunities with an increasing shift to non-linear careers, we’re seeing attitudes towards learning change. Reflecting on this more diverse approach to career and life progression, we’re now seeing learning as an integral part of our lives: new skills need to be learnt to adapt to a rapidly changing world of work and it has never been easier to access specialist information.

contextual, focused learning spread across a person’s whole life, including micro-credentials. We believe that this will evolve learning for students as they demand more personalised and bespoke learning, delivered at the right time throughout their lives, not just in the three or four years of university study.

The time is now This combination of student factors, including the desire for life-long and flexible learning in context, along with external factors, such as market pressures and any lasting impacts of the pandemic, means that we’re unlikely to see this imperative for digital transformation disappear any time soon.

Now is the time to start to think, design, and experiment for lasting change and digital transformation.

For more information, or to discuss your requirements, please contact:

Pat Power Managing Director Health and Public Service Accenture E: Patrick.power@accenture.com T: (01) 646 2319 W: www.accenture.com

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This term is borrowed from architecture and urban planning that we believe has particular significance to higher education in Ireland. Place is the term that captures the essence of a location, encompassing the history, architecture, demography, local culture, language, economy etc. Where the institution is situated often colours the entire student experience.

launchpad for student independence. A strong sense of autonomy and selforganisation is a hallmark of the student experience, from organising nights in local clubs to founding and managing societies to engage with politics and activism.

education and skills report

A deeper dive into the student experience suggests that learning motivations lie with individual life goals such as improving quality of life, buying a house, exploring the world, or finding meaning. Consistently we find that education itself was of relatively low importance for people; however, attaining life goals was essential.

“A deeper dive into the student experience suggests that learning motivations lie with individual life goals such as improving quality of life, buying a house, exploring the world, or finding meaning. Consistently we find that education itself was of relatively low importance for people; however, attaining life goals was essential.”

A key element of this will be breaking down the traditional three-five-year learning model favouring a more 75

education and skills report

Budget seeks to deliver on PfG education promises The Programme for Government agreed by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party promises “better opportunities through education and research”. With a funding increase of €410 million delivered through Budget 2021, the quest to deliver that promise now begins.

Programme for Government The Programme for Government (PfG) states that education is a “cornerstone of society and a driver of social equality” and says that it is “imperative” that the Government creates “new and viable opportunities for young people and those wishing to re-skill”. The Government also stresses its belief that education will be a key enabler in Ireland’s recovery from Covid-19 and in the country’s attempts to fight the climate crisis.

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Under the heading of “primary and post-primary education”, the Government pledges to continue the development of the education system to “meet the needs of all students and to tackle disadvantage from an early age”. The various ways in which children are disadvantaged such as cost, equipment and travel arrangements are addressed throughout.

In terms of cost, the Government pledges to enact the Student and Parent Charter Bill, which will require

schools to publish and implement charters for students and parents. A free schoolbooks pilot scheme is also pledge, with national rollout “as resources allow”; in 2019, then-Fianna Fáil TD and now-Senator and thenChair of the Committee on Education and Social Protection Fiona O’Loughlin estimated that €20 million would provide the seed funding for a national book renting scheme. Relatedly, the PfG also says that the Government will develop guidelines for schools for costeffective and sustainable practices in

order to decrease equipment and uniform prices for families, with the use of workbooks discouraged.

Under its plan for “high quality education”, the Government says that it will seek to increase the capitation grant in order to reduce the reliance on voluntary contributions to schools.

Additional pledges involve the “further progress” towards a reduction in the pupil-teacher ratio in primary schools, the completion of an audit and inventory of all school buildings and infrastructure in the State, the expansion of the Energy Efficiency Upgrade Pilot Programme for Schools and the placement of the minor works grant on permanent footing for schools.

The Government has also set itself the target of at least 400 multidenominational primary schools by 2030 and plans to “prioritise” the transfer of viable schools to Community National Schools. In terms of support

It is in its provision of staff, at a time when staff conditions are of utmost concern, that the PfG is at its sparsest on detail in an educational context.

Teachers and leasers are simply said to “need to be supported to continually improve” and the Government says it will “help them to develop their own self-evaluation plan” and “invest in teachers’ continued professional development”.

Budget 2021 Most notable among the education measures outlined in Budget 2021 is the provision of 2,100 new teachers and special needs assistants, progressing towards the Government’s stated aim of reducing class sizes. With Ireland having the most overcrowded primary school classes in the EU, the announcement of 307 new teachers in primary schools will go some way towards addressing pupil-teacher ratio.

The increase in allocation of teacher to schools will begin in the 2021/22 school year, at a cost of €14.5 million per year and will lower the pupil-teacher ratio from 26:1 to 25:1. The figure of 2,100 new teachers and assistants also consists of 403 special education teachers, 990 special needs assistants and 267 extra teaching posts across primary and post-primary education.

Pupil-teacher ratio has been one of the

Irish National Teachers’ Organisation’s (INTO) main campaigning points of the last five years; the EU average class size is 20, while it stands at 24 in Ireland, with one-in-five children taught in classes of 30 or more.

Overall, the education sector was allocated €8.9 billion under Budget 2021, an increase of €410 million. The further funding of DEIS schools, as promised in the PfG, is delivered through additional funding of €2 million in 2021 and €5 million in a full year.

Other notable monetary figures pledged in the Budget include: €226 million for schools’ Covid-19 responses from January to July/August 2021; €740 million to provide additional capacity to the school system to deal with both Covid and the increased numbers of students; and €80 million extra in 2020 capital investment to “allow for the ICT grant and also the minor works grant at primary level that would be due to be paid in 2021 to be paid in late 2020”. €2 billion in funding for special education has also been allocated, with the number of special needs assistants targeted to exceed 18,000 in 2021.

education and skills report

For transport, the Government pledges a “comprehensive” review of the School Transport Scheme, with a view to providing better value and a better service for students. Contained within the Government’s “inclusive vision for education” is: the support for continued investment in special needs assistants; “further progress” towards needsbased supports for students with special educational needs; an update of the National Anti-Bullying Plan to include gender identity bullying; the publication of a national policy on initial teacher education to encourage further access to teaching for those from minority backgrounds and the completion of the new DEIS identification model, with the extension of DEIS status to schools deemed suitable.

for Irish language and culture education, increased supports to An Comhairle um Oideachas agus Gaelscoilíochta are pledged, along with an Irish Cultural Studies Junior Cycle Level 2 course with an emphasis on Irish language, culture, nature and biodiversity, including Traveller culture and history.

The INTO welcomed the Budget’s steps towards shortening the pupil-teacher ratio, saying in a statement that the pandemic has meant that “a spotlight has been shone on this chronic problem and we acknowledge that the Government has provided some good news”. General Secretary John Boyle said: “This measure will be of most benefit to the one-in-five pupils who learn in classes of 30 or more. While tens of thousands of children will continue to learn in classes above the EU average, we are at least on the right road now. This change will have a positive impact on the primary education landscape.”

However, in a further statement the next day, Boyle criticised plans for only including DEIS band one senior schools in the ratio reductions, leaving out DEIS band one junior and vertical schools.

Boyle said: “The decision makes no sense considering the evidence that class size matters most for younger children and for those suffering disadvantage. The children in both of these categories are left out of this wrong-headed plan, which must be revised to include all DEIS band one schools.”

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Higher Education Authority: Adapting to our new reality education and skills report

The impact of Covid-19 on higher education has forced changes across the board, but it also foregrounded the issues where the Higher Education Authority would be required to place its focus in the immediate future – flexible skills provision, inclusion, and the changing landscape.

As head of the HEA, Dr Wall is only too aware of the challenges that the higher education sector has had to face over the past year. And now, more than ever, it needs to be acutely responsive to the future and emerging skills needs of the Irish economy.

“To date Higher Education has responded well to the demands of society and there is good evidence to back this up. Take, for example, our most recent Graduate Outcomes Report.

It shows that 80 per cent of graduates are in employment nine months after graduation and 90 per cent of those employed graduates are working in Ireland. Further, there is a high level of satisfaction amongst employers, our Ireland National Employer Survey showed an 86 per cent satisfaction rating among employers with the quality of higher education graduates.

“However, the system needs to continue to be more responsive to, and focused on, the future and emerging skill needs of the Irish and international economy.”

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The new Chief Executive of the Higher Education Authority, Dr Alan Wall, speaks about his belief that future and emerging skills are the key to economic success nationally and internationally and how Ireland’s higher education sector must adapt to make this a successful reality.

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Sectoral response To date, the response of the higher education sector to aligning the skills needs of the economy has been further enhanced through initiatives such as Springboard+ courses, the Human Capital Initiative, the Apprenticeship system, the July Stimulus and more generally throughout the HEA’s undergraduate and postgraduate provision.

The role of employer engagement is to the forefront of all these initiatives through direct links with higher education providers or through engagement with

the Regional Skills Fora Managers.

This collaborative approach has ensured that the higher education sector is producing graduates that are future world and work ready – such as embedding creative thinking, entrepreneurial skills, new technologies and new teaching and learning methods.

“This challenge is being met through a host of different initiatives that are targeted in specific areas such as innovative methods of teaching and delivery and responding rapidly to the emerging skills needs of enterprise, ensuring that we keep ahead of the curve when it comes to preparing students for the new and changing economic landscape.”

Access to education One of the ways this is working for higher education and for enterprise is a new system which will allow pathways to full qualifications in bite-sized chunks and where students can get recognition of their prior learning, which would include industry experience, opening access to higher education to a whole new group of learners.

The recent July Stimulus funding allowed for the development of modular shortbased courses like those being run in other EU countries. It is an area that the HEA would like to expand further due to its importance, flexible approach, and popularity.

“What is needed is the development of more seamless pathways between further and higher education that allows movement back and forth between the two different sectors. I see this as being an important focus area between the two sectors in the coming years,” Dr Wall says.

“While progress has been made, our higher education population is still not as diverse as it should be. It does not reflect the diversity of the population of Ireland; this needs to change. The economy requires a supply of innovative, creative, flexible, and critical thinking graduates who bring diverse ideas to their places of work and challenge traditional ways of thinking. We can only supply these graduates if there is a diversity of students entering higher education.

“We want to be a society that embraces diversity and where higher education is accessible by all regardless of background, disability, ethnicity or financial means. This is a priority that dovetails with economic objectives. Our economy needs to mobilise the talents and skills of our diverse population in order to sustain growth and meet skills needs. For both social and economic objectives, it is therefore imperative that inclusivity is at the heart of our objectives for our higher education system.”

Funding streams such as the FSD (Fund for Students with Disabilities), SAF (Student Assistance Fund) and PATH (Programme for Access to Higher Education) are welcome investments and build on the core access infrastructure funding provided through the HEA block grant. However, this needs to also be part of a wider social policy strategy and integrated whole-ofeducation approach that addresses systemic issues of disadvantage across society.

Technological universities “The landscape of Irish higher education is changing. The most significant change

is the emergence of technological universities. These new institutions will build on the firm foundations of the former Institutes of Technology, increasing their capacity and collaborative scale in teaching and learning, equity of access, research and societal and enterprise engagement,” he says.

Ireland’s first new technological university, Technological University Dublin, was created in early 2019 through the merger of DIT, and the Institutes of Technology in Tallaght and Blanchardstown. Cork and Tralee will formally merge in January 2021 to form Munster Technological University. There are others on the way too, Sligo, Letterkenny and Galway on the west coast, Limerick and Athlone in midlands and mid-west, and Carlow and Waterford in the south-east.

“These TUs are in and of their regions, and each will be distinctive, both from each other and from traditional universities, but equally each will support social, cultural and economic development, as well as delivering an enhanced student experience and range of flexible and targeted learning opportunities,” says Dr Wall.

When he joined the HEA as its new Chief Executive in 2019, Dr Wall says he found an organisation that “works hard to support a system catering for almost a quarter of a million students”.

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Higher education is also about ensuring the student gets what they need from their studies and in a changing environment, this can be complex.

Not only do we need flexible provision, but we need to ensure that we provide pathways to higher education to all of those seeking to upskill through higher education.

education and skills report

“We need also to ensure that we are constantly preparing for new and emerging technologies and a changing cohort of learners. While a lot has been achieved, there is always room for improvement and higher education needs to be examining different types of work-based learning and dual learning initiatives which are flexible and can be rapidly updated to meet labour market skills needs.

“We are now at a challenging point but also at a place of opportunity for reform and modernisation. We are ready for that challenge,” Dr Wall concludes.

T: +353 1 231 7100 E: info@hea.ie Twitter: @hea_irl W: www.hea.ie

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Covid-19 and second-level education A report analysing the impact of the Covid-19 lockdown on second-level education has found access to technology and broadband to be the main factor informing the quality of responses to the pandemic.

Conducted by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) in partnership with the Department of Communications, Climate Action and the Environment and the Commission for Communications Regulation, Learning for all? Second-level education in Ireland during Covid-19 found that almost half of the school leaders surveyed reported broadband connectivity and access to ICT devices as issues in their schools’ responses to the Covid-19 closure of schools in March 2020.

amenities, the research found that 53.5 per cent of schools had provided ICT equipment to their students as a result of the closures. 19.9 per cent of schools said that they were in the process of sourcing and acquitting equipment to do the same, while 13.3 per cent of schools had already provided ICT equipment prior to the pandemic and the same proportion of schools had not supplied any equipment and were in the process of doing so at the time of the report’s publication in June 2020.

Both of these issues were exacerbated in DEIS schools, schools in areas with lower coverage of high-speed broadband and lower household incomes. The study was conducted with the aim of establishing how the second-level education sector has responded to the challenges posed by the pandemic and how teaching and learning have been affected.

18 per cent of schools reported the use of live online video classes for “all classes”, while 38.9 per cent and 40.2 per cent used the method for “most classes” and “some classes” respectively. 3 per cent of schools reported no virtual live teaching.

Differences in use and frequency of virtual live teaching across areas of varying broadband strength were apparent in the reportage, with 89.9 per cent of schools surveyed in good broadband coverage areas saying “all”

As schools were forced to adapt to closures and a lack of access to

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or “most” classes were conducted through this method. In areas of lower broadband coverage, this figure drops to 61.8 per cent. In schools with lower income catchment areas, this figure falls again to 49.2 per cent, while higher income areas recorded a rate of 65.5 per cent.

Pre-recorded videos and audio and shared presentations were reported as being used in “some” classes by “almost all schools”, with platforms such as Kahoot and StudyClix reported to have been used by 90 per cent of schools. Paper-based learning such as worksheets and textbooks was used for “all classes” by 16.8 per cent of schools, for “most classes” again by 16.8 per cent and for “some classes” by 50.4 per cent. 15.9 per cent of schools reported no use of paperbased methods for remote learning.

There was no difference found in the prevalence of paper-based methods by DEIS status or income/broadband characteristics of the areas surveyed.

Provision of ICT equipment in secondary schools

13.3%

No

53.5%

Yes, as a result of school closures

Yes, prior to school closures

19.9% 13.3%

Source: ESRI

Use of live virtual teaching in "all" or "most" classes by area characteristics

Across all schools, 33 per cent of schools reported participation in the free school meals programme during the shutdown, with just 2.6 per cent of schools who normally participate not participating in the programme during the lockdown. 95.5 per cent of DEIS schools reported participation but 4.6 per cent did not participate where they usually did. 8 per cent of non-DEIS schools reported participation, with 3.1 per cent of those who usually participate not doing so.

89.9%

65.5%

61.8% 49.2%

Good broadband coverage areas

Lower broadband coverage areas

Lower income catchment areas

Higher income catchment areas Source: ESRI

Schools reporting digital divide in terms of both broadband quality and ICT equipment access Higher income catchment areas

35.9%

Lower income catchment areas

58.0%

Lower broadband coverage areas Good broadband coverage areas

56.7% 37.1%

DEIS schools All schools

48 per cent of all schools surveyed reported a digital divide in relation to both broadband access and provision of ICT equipment across their students.

57.6 per cent of DEIS schools reported being limited in terms of broadband and equipment access. Just 37.1 per cent of schools in areas with high availability of high-speed broadband reported issues in both areas, while 56.7 per cent of schools in areas with lower coverage reported issues with both aspects. 58 per cent of schools in lower income catchment areas reported issues with both, compared to 35.9 per cent in higher income areas.

education and skills report

In the process of sourcing/acquiring

Phone-based communication was reported by 60.7 per cent of schools for at least “some” classes. A greater reliance on phones was evident in DEIS schools, with 82.5 per cent of those surveyed reporting use of phones for teaching, while 52.4 per cent of nonDEIS schools reported the same.

57.6% 48.0% Source: ESRI

The report also notes that “a major factor impacting schools’ shift to distance learning was the lack of time to prepare, with the announcement that school buildings were to close made on the morning of 12 March and the closure commencing at 6pm that day”.

Concluding, the report states that whole some schools, “iPad schools” in particular, “reported almost seamless transitions” to remote learning, but that the transition “impacted on student engagement and participation” and that teachers “experienced a range of difficulties in working from home”.

Students from socioeconomically disadvantaged background were found to be most affected, leading to fears that “one outcome of the lockdown will be a widening of the gap as preexisting advantage and disadvantage are compounded”.

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Action plan for apprenticeships Following the conclusion of the Action Plan to Expand Apprenticeship and Traineeship in Ireland 2016-2020, the Government has launched the consultation process for its next apprenticeship action plan.

Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris TD, and Minister of State for Further Education and Skills Niall Collins TD launched the consultation process for the next action plan for apprenticeships in Ireland in August. The number of people registering for an apprenticeship almost doubled between 2016 and 2019, jumping from 3,153 to 6,177.

However, the Government has noted that of those 6,177, just 2.7 per cent self-declared as having a disability and 4 per cent are female. The new action plan will seek to build on the Programme for Government and the Further Education and Training Strategy that was launched in July to “set out a five-year pathway to embed apprenticeship in enterprise and will provide a comprehensive set of actions designed to increase the diversity of learners who chose apprenticeship programmes”.

Apprenticeships are currently offered through 55 programmes in Ireland, with a further 23 in development for rollout “during 2020 and beyond”. The 82

qualifications take from two to four years to complete and cover levels 5-9 of the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ).

Speaking at the launch, Minister Harris said: “We know that our apprenticeship model needs to be revised and this consultation is the beginning of that process. We also know we need to expand the model and change people’s mind set of what an apprentice is and is not. The apprentice model is no longer confined to craft trades. It has expanded to the financial services sector, to ICT and accounting. Now we must look to expand it to where skillsets are most needed including in the area of childcare and the health service and crucially where it may be needed in the future.”

The week before the commencement of the consultation process, Harris announced a new incentive scheme for employers, allowing them to earn up to €3,000 for each apprentice in their employ. The companies availing of the scheme will collect €1,000 upon the apprentice’s appointment and a further €2,000 if the apprentice is still in post 12 months later.

Reviewing the figures forecast and targeted in the Action Plan to Expand Apprenticeships and Traineeships in Ireland 2016-2020 reveals a failure on the part of the previous government to hit the targets it had outlined for itself.

9,000 total apprenticeship registrations were targeted for 2020 and if the outbreak of Covid-19 can excuse the failure to reach that target (as is expected), no such excuse exists for the failure to meet 2019’s target of 7,384.

While the 6,177 registrations in 2019 did mark significant progress from 2016, this number did still fall quite short of its intended level.

With the economic damage wrought by Covid-19, it is perhaps not surprising that incentives are required to support the taking on of apprentices. Starting with the scheduled expansions of apprenticeships to 78 programmes and to level 10, the highest level of the NQF and PhD equivalent, the new action plan will need to continue its diversification of portions if the Government is to reach its goal of more overall registrations and the diversifications of those registering.

Get active, stay active: EPALE

by Erasmus+, co-financed by European Union member states and supported in Ireland by SOLAS. It has National Support Services (NSSs) in 38 European countries, writes Manika-Nia Dixon, EPALE IE Coordinator.

EPALE is intended for Adult Education professionals including FET educators and trainers; guidance and support staff; researchers and academics; and policymakers. The platform is unique in its: •

Open membership;

•

Multilingual approach;

•

User-led content; and

•

Communities of practice.

The platform provides a haven for practitioners to collaborate, innovate, and connect through blog posts, open discussions, and the partner search tool, as well as through physical gatherings.

EPALE in Ireland is managed by Léargas, the National Agency for Erasmus+ Adult Education, School Education, VET and Youth. Like many NSSs, EPALE Ireland (IE) takes a digital approach to activate practitioners across the country to get active and stay active in EPALE.

EPALE surveys what is being done and looks for ways to elevate, switch, or create something new, and in doing so facilitates space for the sector to grow and innovate alongside.

Each year we identify quarterly themes and design specific events and discussion around them. In 2020, EPALE IE approached topics like: •

Digital challenges and opportunities;

•

E-teaching languages journeys;

•

Story finding in the community; and

•

Bringing burnout tools to adult learners.

professional capabilities. The connections made uphold EPALE’s mission of pan-European cooperation.

Through joining EPALE for free, members become part of the largest hub for adult learning in Europe and have access to an ever-growing community where each member is an integral part of the vibrancy and creativity of the platform. In addition to having access to relevant content, members can submit blog posts, news, events, and resources. Registered users are also able to participate in shared spaces and communities of practice, encouraging networking and professional improvement. All this creates a very special kind of collaborative atmosphere.

EPALE’s calendar enables members to easily understand what is coming up, as well as view past events, to help complement their own events and cultivate ideas for the future.

EPALE’s success in cultivating a community platform in adult learning makes it a worthwhile venture for every professional within the field.

Léargas, Kings Inns House, Parnell St, Dublin 1, D01 A3Y8 E: epale@leargas.ie W: www.leargas.ie

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EPALE IE offers workshops, webinars, discussion points, events, and news updates relevant to the Adult Education sector in Ireland. EPALE IE also focuses on promoting more and better opportunities for adult learners through connection with specialists in the adult education sector. For EPALE IE, we value staying current: we strive to animate the platform through topics that members identify as both useful and relevant.

Because EPALE is an electronic platform, we were uniquely situated during the beginning stages of the global pandemic to continue to serve our members. However, we – and many other NSSs – endeavour to be continuously innovative in our delivery of original content and events. EPALE IE, for example, responded to the potential oversaturation of web-based events by constructing a space that relieves members of burnout. Supporting members by staying in tune with needs is a primary objective for us.

education and skills report

EPALE is the Electronic Platform for Adult Learning in Europe. It is funded

We used feedback from each event to create more content and events for members to boost their professional knowledge and expertise. Traversing down wide and varied topics within EPALE’s overarching themes allows members to expand on their

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Covid-19 and third-level education

education and skills report

A total income loss of €348 million is forecast across universities in Ireland in the academic years 2019/20 and 2020/21, with 46 per cent of that loss due to a fall of fee income from international students, a government report has found.

The report, published by the Parliamentary Budget Office, focuses on Covid-19’s impact on third-level education in Ireland. It states that all seven universities are projecting deficits across both the academic years 2019/2020 and 2020/2021.

Income loss of €104 million is projected for the academic year 2019/20 across the Republic’s seven universities, the “vast majority” of which stems from losses in commercial revenue, which accounts for 69 per cent, with 23 per cent being losses in research grants and contracts and 7 per cent relating to a loss in tuition income. Further losses of €244 million are projected for the academic year 2020/21; 71 per cent of this projection comes from loss of tuition fee income, 64 per cent being from loss of tuition from international students alone. Decreases in other commercial revenue account for 26 per cent.

Cumulatively, total income losses of €348 million are projected across the two years combined, with 46 per cent of that accounted for by loss of tuition fee income from international students,

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a total of €160 million. €135 million, or 39 per cent, is accounted for by loss of other commercial revenues. Other commercial revenues are broken down into further subcategories: student accommodation (losses of €23.5 million and €13.5 million in 2019/20 and 2020/21 respectively); visitor attractions (€11.5 million and €6 million); summer schools (€6 million and €4 million); conferences and events (€6 million and €2 million); sport centres/gyms, catering, professional education, shops, etc. (€15 million and €28.5 million); and endowment income, philanthropic income, etc. (€10 million and €10 million).

The report also notes that the “loss in tuition fee income, as projected, will likely have financial implications for the sector beyond 2020/21, as students enrolling in that year would likely have enrolled for two to three additional years, depending on the duration of the study”. The Irish Universities Association has suggested that some of these costs could be compensated via business interruption insurance claims and through payments for the provision

of facilities and services from organisations such as the HSE during the pandemic, although the report says that the former is “highly uncertain”.

From an expenditure point of view, there are projected savings of €19.5 million for the academic year 2019/20, split between pay at €2.9 million and non-pay at €16.6 million. €1.7 million in additional spending is projected for the academic year 2020/21, again split between €0.5 million of pay and €1.2 million of non-pay. Overall, the net cost of Covid-19 for the seven universities is projected to be €83 million for 2019/20 and €245 million in 2020/21, a total of €328 million over the current and just gone academic years.

A total deficit of €292 million over the two years, €67 million in 2019/20 and €225 million in 2020/21, is projected.

These figures do not take into account the funding pledged to the sector by the Government in response to the pandemic. However, with €209 million in aid pledged so far, loss figures suggest these aid figures will be required to increase.

Generating capacity within Higher Education Third-level institutions must adapt their financial strategies to the new normal by generating capacity and funds, using levers including spend, liquidity, credit, and portfolio management, writes Aoife Donnelly, Managing Director, CFO and Enterprise Value, Accenture.

Manage spend The pandemic has accelerated cost management programmes and encouraged new ones across all areas of the economy. Third level institutions do not wish to revert to some of the sharper cost takeout approaches that were taken during the 2008 recession, where department budgets were cut en

Third level institutions must also be aware that where spending cuts are imposed, they may not be sustainable in all areas. Some staff are going to have to travel again. Work may need to be contracted again, but there is an opportunity to re-evaluate costs and the processes around them to ensure that they do not return to previous levels.

Manage liquidity Every third level institution has to carefully manage working capital, and make sure there’s always cash to pay bills. Putting a hold on non-essential work, leveraging contractors for the right work, and talking to suppliers about invoice arrangements and outstanding payments can also shore up liquidity and avoid unnecessary bank charges.

Financing and credit

there is an opportunity for third level institutions to evaluate their credit arrangements, supporting their liquidity goals.

Portfolio management Third level institutions should carry out a strategic review of performing and nonperforming assets and divest where appropriate. Some institutions hold significant property portfolios. Now, is the time to review these investments, start to manage the portfolio strategically ensuring alignment with long term plans in order to and understand where costs can be avoided.

All of these are levers that come up in discussions that Accenture is having with its clients in the education sector in Ireland and around the world. A new willingness to embrace technology is also apparent as part of these discussions; for example, the business case for delivering services from the cloud instead of on-premises IT stacks – the OPEX versus CAPEX argument.

This is likely to gain even more traction.

There will likely be continued uncertainty ahead as the lasting impacts of the pandemic edge into the 2021/2022 academic year, and finances are still a big unknown. What is certain is that third level institutions need to put financial strategies in place to navigate these uncertain times.

For more information, or to discuss your requirements, please contact:

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While some welcomed Government support has been provided, there will be a gap between third level institution’s income and the spending required to deliver transformation as a result of the pandemic, such as student information systems, support hubs and other digital solutions (e.g. Virtual Open Days). Third level institutions across the country will need to look at how they generate capacity and funds from within. When looking to generate this capacity, there are several levers they can consider:

How can employee engagement and workforce scheduling be managed to reduce both absence and overtime?

education and skills report

Now, more than ever, it is clear that third level institutions need to invest in their people, processes, and digital solutions. Even in more normal times, this would be challenging, but today we’re living in a time that could be described as the never normal. It is forecast by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) that there will be a potential shortfall of €500 million this year and next for third level institutions across Ireland. As is widely known, this shortfall stems from reductions in income sources, including academic fees from international students but also many lesser-known income sources, including tourism, catering, events, English language teaching, and others.

The pandemic has impacted all of these revenue drivers, like so many other areas of the economy.

masse. The sector needs to take a smart and targeted approach to reduce spend, generate capacity and funds to focus on the most critical initiatives, while protecting services, students, and staff. When it comes to managing this spend, this will involve understanding consumption trends, price, and challenging accepted ways of working.

For example, in a world where hybrid learning is already the norm, what shortto-medium-term property lease arrangements can be immediately terminated? How can lectures be scheduled to minimise energy usage?

What controls can we put around printing to direct focus to online resources? What systems do we have in place to review fees to third parties?

Aoife Donnelly Managing Director, CFO & Enterprise Value, Accenture E: aoife.donnelly@accenture.com

Many institutions are moving quickly to renegotiate debt paydown and credit facility options on borrowings with their banks to help. The banking industry in the main has stepped up to the impact of Covid on their clients. As a result, 85

education and skills report

Transforming business through talent “The experience and expertise Skillnet Ireland has gained over the last 20 years and models it has developed will support it in helping business to recover, transform and grow. Skillnet Ireland is ambitious for Ireland and for Irish enterprise, and our new strategy reflects the need for Ireland to have a highly skilled and agile workforce. Skillnet Ireland is doing this by setting itself ambitious targets, focused on the three key themes of workforce design, people development and strategic innovation.”

The primary challenges anticipated by business leaders globally at the turn of the decade just 12 months ago largely focused on disruptive influences including rapid advancement in technology, geopolitical issues and climate change. Few could have predicted the scale of disruption that would

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follow on account of the Covid-19 global pandemic.

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The profound impact on societies, economies and workers has resulted in a seismic and almost immediate shift in the way businesses operate and the ways in which workers carry out their jobs. Skillnet Ireland believes that the business community in Ireland can take heart from how we have collectively adapted to the unparalleled change experienced over the course of the past year.

renewed spirit of optimism among the business community about the challenges that we collectively face now and in the future. It is in that same spirit that Skillnet Ireland recently introduced Transforming Business through Talent 2021-2025, an ambitious and comprehensive strategy that will see Skillnet Ireland fulfil its full potential in shaping Ireland’s workforce.

Our response to Covid-19 has highlighted the great capacity that exists within us all for renewal and invention.

Through this time, Skillnet Ireland and its industry partners have fostered a

“At Skillnet Ireland, we are building a world class, enterprise-led organisation to prepare businesses and workers for the future of work,” said Brendan McGinty, Chairperson of Skillnet Ireland.

As working environments become more complex and greater mobility is needed, developing people is an essential route to achieving business goals. Lifelong learning has never been more relevant and will be a driving force in our recovery from this period of significant disruption that will require all of us to adapt and learn new skills. Companies and workers are central to this, as Skillnet Ireland firmly believes the skills that power Ireland’s economy are derived from within employment.

Paul Healy, Chief Executive, Skillnet Ireland said: “We are putting in place a five-year strategy that will focus on equipping businesses with the talent they need to tackle the significant challenges they face. This has never been more important than today, as we continue to grapple with the economic impacts of Covid-19. Skillnet Ireland has responded to the needs of businesses from the very beginning of this crisis, supporting organisations struggling because of the pandemic to pivot into new sectors.”

The future, although challenging, offers us a chance to transition and transform businesses, build new business models, or reengineer existing ones, and for those within the workforce to build new skills and career paths. Skillnet Ireland’s strategy responds to these challenges, outlining a clear and effective path to new people development supports that are tailored to a world of virtual working

and often time-poor businesses and workers.

Skillnet Ireland uses a highly specialised approach to people development. It works with employers, across more than 50 distinct industry groups, to determine future talent and upskilling needs and the solutions they need to meet them. With direct access to 18,400 SMEs, Skillnet Ireland, in collaboration with its industry partners, aims to increase its focus on the upskilling and management development programmes that drive growth and innovation in SMEs.

education and skills report

Operating at the intersection between the business sector, government, and the training and education system, Skillnet Ireland will enhance its role over the next five years as a coordinating body, to consistently drive continued collaboration between businesses, industry bodies and the training and education ecosystem.

Speaking about the impact of Skillnet Ireland’s role in the innovation ecosystem, Chief Executive Paul Healy said: “As we navigate the future and the challenges it brings, we must equip businesses with the right talent to ensure they are fit for purpose. Our activity over the next five years will deliver a fourfold increase in innovation themed workforce development projects. The digital agenda and climate action are key drivers of change, and our new strategy, and its enabling plans, speak to these in a really clear way.

“Skillnet Ireland looks forward to working with businesses to support the talent demands for building a low-carbon and sustainable economy through our enterprise-driven climate action upskilling initiative. We will also work with our partners to address the need for greater digitalisation of processes as we all move towards a more digital future.”

companies develop their capacity to deal with the additional customs requirements arising from the UK’s departure from the Customs Union.

Skillnet Ireland also has a range of industry-led back to employment programmes underway through its new Skills Connect initiative, which will play a key role in supporting re-entry to the workforce for those most impacted by Covid-19. Skills Connect is a practical employer-driven initiative that connects affected workers to new opportunities in the workplace, by building on their existing skills and experience. Over 500 companies from across the economy have already committed to supporting

the Skills Connect initiative through the provision of work placements, mentoring and other supports.

Central to all of Skillnet Ireland’s work is its belief that enterprise-led learning can help business leaders, managers and the workforce meet the demands of the future, and enable businesses to be the best they can be.

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Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Skillnet Ireland has intensified the collaboration with its industry partners, providing speedy and high impact solutions that are making a real difference on the ground. Its 70 Skillnet Networks have responded with a wide range of supports for businesses and adapted their business model rapidly to deliver their services online.

Skillnet Ireland also launched new programmes, Rebound Back to Work Safely, and MentorsWork to help business owner-managers and leaders sustain and improve their business performance while addressing their specific business needs. Skillnet Ireland’s award-winning Clear Customs Scheme has also been central to Brexit preparations, helping more than 1,700

“Skillnet Ireland is putting in place a five-year strategy that will focus on equipping businesses with the talent they need to tackle the significant challenges they face. This has never been more important than today, as we continue to grapple with the economic impacts of Covid-19. We have responded to the needs of businesses from the very beginning of this crisis, supporting organisations struggling because of the pandemic to pivot into new sectors.”

To find our more about Skillnet Ireland’s Strategy ‘Transforming Business Through Talent’, visit www.skillnetireland.ie/strategy2025

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QS World University Rankings 2021 education and skills report

Half of Ireland’s top 10 universities climbed places in Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings for 2021.

NUI Galway climbed 21 places, positioning itself within the top fifth in the QS rankings. Meanwhile, Trinity College Dublin retained its position as Ireland’s best ranked university and now sits just outside the top 100.

The rankings are determined by key indicators which include academic reputation, staff-to-student ratios, citations per faculty and the international dimensions of the workforce and student populations.

02

Credit: UCD

03

01 Credit: Hernán Piñera

Trinity College Dublin Rank: 101 ↑ 7 Status: Public Research output: Very high Academic faculty staff: 1,399 Total students: 15,618

04 Credit: William Murphy

University College Dublin

Queen’s University Belfast

NUI Galway

Rank: 177 ↑ 8 Status: Public Research output: Very high Academic faculty staff: 1,725 Total students: 20,162

Rank: 209 ↓ 36 Status: Public Research output: Very high Academic faculty staff: 1,939 Total Students: 18,694

Rank: 238 ↑ 21 Status: Public Research output: High Academic faculty staff: 1,901 Total students: 14,207

05

06

Credit: DCU

07

Credit: William Murphy

Credit: William Murphy

University College Cork

Dublin City University

University of Limerick

Rank: 286 ↑ 24 Status: Public Research output: Very high Academic faculty staff: 1,628 Total students: 16,757

Rank: 439 ↓ 10 Status: Public Research output: High Academic faculty staff: 1,185 Total students: 12,705

Rank: 511-520 ↑ Status: Public Research output: High Academic faculty staff: 871 Total students: 12,846

08

Credit: Ulster University

09

Credit: William Murphy

10 Credit: William Murphy

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Ulster University

Maynooth University

Technological University Dublin

Rank: 601-650 = Status: Public Research output: High Academic faculty staff: 1,103 Total students: 14,669

Rank: 701-750 = Status: Public Research output: Very high Academic faculty staff: 651 Total students: 10,425

Rank: 801-1,000 ↓ Status: Public Research output: High Academic faculty staff: 1,445 Total students: 21,363

Youth Wiki: Europe’s online encyclopaedia for national youth policies Created by the European Commission to help policy makers in decision making, Youth Wiki provides

education and skills report

information on youth policy within and across countries. It is a one-stop-shop to compare national structures, policies and actions that support young people between 29 countries, writes Léargas’ Laura Austen-Gray, National Correspondent for Youth Wiki.

The platform is designed for those who need policy information fast. The Youth Wiki offers comprehensive, qualitative information that can be quickly searched by either country or policy area. Readers are also directed to further resources where you can find additional information on each topic.

The main source of the platform’s information is official documents from national top-level authorities in the youth field. Information from studies, surveys, analyses or assessments/evaluations, conducted directly by public authorities or commissioned to research centres, experts, and think-tanks, is also provided.

The platform’s content is shaped by the policy priorities established by the European Commission and the member states in the framework of European cooperation in the youth field. Currently, you can access information on ten policy areas in the Youth Wiki ‘chapters’: •

Youth Policy Governance

•

Voluntary Activities

•

Employment and Entrepreneurship

•

Social Inclusion

•

Participation

•

Education and Training

•

Health and Well-Being

•

Creativity and Culture

•

Youth and the World

•

Youth Work

For an even faster way to compare youth policy issues, you can also explore information through interactive maps.

A feature of the Youth Wiki is that it reports complex policy initiatives in accessible, plain English. Each policy area is subdivided into several topics, ensuring that it is easy to scan for the information you need.

Youth Wiki Ireland is managed by Léargas, the National Agency for Erasmus+ in Adult Education, School Education, Vocational Education and Training, and Youth. The Youth Wiki is nationally co-funded by the European Commission and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.

Léargas, Kings Inn House, Parnell St, Rotunda, Dublin 1, D01 A3Y8 T: 01 887 1241 E: laustengray@leargas.ie W: www.leargas.ie

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The Youth Wiki enables the exchange of information and innovative approaches and can be used as a resource to support peer learning activities. It is the ideal platform for policy makers to find inspiration for new youth policies, programmes or reforms already established by other European nations. Meanwhile, academics and researchers may benefit from comparing initiatives and outcomes across countries. Front line youth workers and those working in youth organisations can use the Youth Wiki to find additional opportunities which could benefit their clients.

Youth Wiki Ireland provides the highest standard of data. The information is written by the National Correspondent and thoroughly fact-checked and edited by subject matter specialists, chosen for their expertise in the relevant youth policy area.

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education and skills report

Crafting curriculum and assessment for this generation and the next Spanning childhood and adolescence from birth to age 18, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) works with stakeholders to shape the curriculum for all children and young people in Ireland. NCCA’s Chair, Professor Mary O’Sullivan, outlines some of the work ahead, as the Council further extends and embeds inclusive, consultative processes in its work; supports the early childhood sector; consults on proposals for the future of the primary curriculum; and concludes an extensive review of senior cycle education.

Curriculum in the time of Covid

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Covid-19 has forced us all to reckon with and reassess what really matters in our societies and communities. The fallout from Covid-19 gave us space to collectively re-assert the centrality of education in the Irish psyche and the crucial role education plays in supporting how society functions on a daily basis. Teachers and practitioners, parents and policymakers, students and stakeholders were acutely aware of the impact of setting and school closures on all of our lives and particularly on the lives of children and young people.

Inequities which arguably always existed in education, and in society more broadly, came more sharply into focus and a collective desire to reopen schools and to tackle these inequities head on and with common purpose made itself known via the airwaves, on the news and in our homes.

The Council’s work in 2021 and beyond 90

is driven by this common sense of purpose, with a focus on developing and supporting inclusive curriculum and assessment practices. NCCA’s vision is to lead innovation in education for learning, living and working in a changing world. But how does this work take place?

Curriculum and assessment developments Established in 1984, NCCA became a statutory body in 2001 and now has almost four decades of experience under its idiomatic belt, advising the Minister for Education on all matters relating to curriculum and assessment.

The 25-member Council is appointed by the Minister for Education, with the majority nominated by school management, teacher unions, parent and industry representative organisations. The Council oversees the work of NCCA staff, boards and

development groups and plays a central role in shaping policy decisions in education.

Our wide brief makes the work challenging and hugely exciting. We have opportunities to build more and more connections between what and how children learn as they move from early childhood through primary and post-primary school and we must grasp these opportunities, keeping our minds open as we shape challenging, exciting and relevant learning experiences for current and future generations of children and young people.

NCCA works collaboratively with education professionals nominated by stakeholders, to develop curriculum and assessment frameworks and specifications. As advice to the Minister is developed, it draws on four key pillars: • cutting-edge research from across the globe is critically reviewed and

Research evidence, good practice and international experience informs the advice.

The advice is based on discussions and deliberations by Council and its boards and development groups.

extensive body of research, by working directly with schools and preschools, and through ongoing deliberations with the education partners.

Post-primary R ESEARCH

The advice is shaped by feedback from consultations with the public, schools and early childhood settings, education interests and others.

debated as we observe and keep a watchful eye on international developments; • close attention is paid to what works as ideas about learning and teaching are developed, tried out, discussed and evaluated by and with children, young people, practitioners, teachers, parents and school leaders; • consultations encourage wide engagement with key ideas about curriculum and assessment change; and • extensive discussion and deliberation by the education partners takes place.

Feeding in, feeding back and feeding forward

Looking ahead, there is plenty of reason to be excited and proud of the learning experiences our children and young

Networks of schools and early childhood settings provide feedback on ideas and approaches under development, and provide practical examples.

people have access to across the early childhood, primary and post-primary stages of their educational journeys.

Early childhood NCCA launched Aistear, Ireland’s first ever curriculum framework for children from birth to six years, in 2009. This framework recognises the vital importance of early years to children’s cognitive, social and emotional development and we are committed to working with our partners in the early childhood sector over the coming years to update the research base underpinning Aistear and to further enhance the framework so it continues to meaningfully support our youngest children’s learning and development.

Primary What and how children learn in primary school is changing. Earlier this year, NCCA published a set of proposals for consultation on the future of the primary curriculum.

The current primary curriculum was launched 21 years ago and in the interim, there have been calls from schools, parents and policymakers for it to do more, including responding to societal changes.

Proposals for the future of the primary curriculum offer an important opportunity to reflect on the purpose of a primary curriculum, particularly when we think about today’s world and the years ahead. The proposals are shaped by an

Senior Cycle has also seen the introduction of revised and new curriculum specifications in a range of Leaving Certificate subjects including economics, art, politics and society, computer science and Mandarin Chinese.

NCCA’s Review of Senior Cycle which took place between 2017 and 2020, is nearing completion. The Council is finalising an advisory report on the review setting out areas of work to be pursued in the future redevelopment of senior cycle education.

NCCA work in other areas NCCA’s work in the years ahead also includes work on guidelines and materials for the curriculum for young people in detention and care settings; work with schools to gather examples of practice in Traveller culture and history; and developments to support schools’ work in Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE).

Whilst the work of NCCA is something I am rightly very proud of, continuity of learning across all education sectors and all areas of learning during this pandemic was the most crucial role of all, played by our frontline heroes, teachers, early years practitioners and school leaders. Without their passion, engagement and expertise, the vision for curriculum and assessment they help to craft would remain mere words on a page.

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NCCA’s work is highly consultative and deliberative and seeks to achieve praxis of research, policy and practice.

Ongoing engagement with children and young people to capture their voices and perspectives on their experiences in education, informs and shapes the work of the NCCA. The work also incorporates feedback loops, gathering the views of practitioners, teachers, school leaders and parents, before, during and after the process of curriculum development. This approach allows for changes to be made, where relevant, which help to clarify or enhance expectations for learning.

NET WO RK S

education and skills report

CONSULTATI ONS

DELI B ERATI O N S

A renewed Junior Cycle has seen the introduction of new curriculum specifications for all subjects and new curriculum components, such as short courses, as well as new approaches to assessment and reporting. Wellbeing was also introduced as a new area of learning within the Junior Cycle experience.

T: 01 661 7177 E: info@ncca.ie W: ncca.ie

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education and skills report

Capital projects in education The National Development Plan’s capital plan for education amounts to €11.9 billion between 2018 and 2027. Currently, there are 352 active large-scale projects being delivered under the school building programme.

Of that €11.9 billion, €8.8 billion is for the schools sector, which includes €420 million for the Digital Strategy for Schools, and €2.2 billion is for the higher education infrastructure. The key drivers for capital investment in the schools sector, as outlined in a Minister’s briefing, are: a “bulge” in enrolments at post-primary level; the number of teachers increasing by 11,576 over the last eight years; the “ramping up” of housing provision placing more demand on schools; costs of sites for new schools in urban centres; and the need to catch up after decades of underinvestment.

Under the Department of Education’s school building programme, there are 373 large-scale projects in the pipeline, with a further 800 projects due for delivery under the Department’s Additional Accommodation Scheme. As of the Department’s latest update, 352 large-scale projects are in progress in some form or another, ranging from pre-Stage 1, preliminary design, to “on site”. The update, published on 31 October 2020, says that 35 of these projects are currently on site. 14 schools are due to open in 2021, with a further two to open in 2022. One 92

school, a post-primary in Clonskeagh, Dublin 6W, is scheduled to open in 2020.

€1.2 billion has been invested in capital

Twenty-seven schools have been opened in temporary start-up accommodation, with the progress of their permanent sites typically marked as being in the site acquisition or design processes. Thirty-one of the projects are shaded green within the report, meaning that their status had seen some progress in the three months prior to the publication of the report. Of those 31, 11 are in County Dublin, with 18 in the Greater Dublin Region.

million allocated for investment in 2020,

Further information released by the Department shows that 463 projects have been completed between 2010 and the present day, with 45 of those coming in 2019 and two in 2020. The Minister’s briefing states that “while good progress continues to be made with the rollout of projects, the enhanced funding levels envisaged under the National Development Plan period 2018 to 2027 will be key to ensuring the successful delivery of the remaining elements of the pipeline of projects during the NDP period”.

On the impact of the pandemic on the

infrastructure under the school building programme since 2018, with €620 but how Covid-19 work stoppages have affected that investment remains to be seen. The briefing also notes that there were around 200 projects on site in March 2020 when all sites were ordered to be closed under Covid-19 restrictions, and “contact has been made to all contractors by the design team and contracts have to recommence work” since the reopening of sites in May 2020.

schools building programme, the briefing states that “it will take time to re-mobilise and see the impact” and that it “is too early to quantify exactly the impacts on projects”. “A clearer picture will emerge over the next few months as projects become fully remobilised and we gain an increased understanding of the operational impacts of implementing public health guidelines, in particular in relation to the social distancing rules,” it says.

r fo ry! te ia a D rd u yo

®

Infrastructure Ireland

Delivering on Ireland’s investment priorities

Thursday 25th March 2021 • Online conference

eolas is organising its annual Infrastructure Ireland® Conference, which has become well established as the major annual event for all those with a role or interest in the development and delivery of Ireland’s major infrastructure projects. This conference will provide an excellent opportunity to bring together the key stakeholders, both from across the public sector and those in the private sector working in advisory or service delivery roles. The conference will feature a keynote address from Michael McGrath TD, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, who will set out how he will ensure priorities of the NDP will be achieved, in light of the unprecedented demands of Covid-19.

Sponsorship opportunities

There are a limited number of opportunities for interested organisations

Via an expert panel of speakers the conference will look at: •

Review to Renew: Priorities for investment

•

Supporting the delivery of major infrastructure projects

•

Innovative collaborations between the public and private sector

•

Ensuring resilient infrastructure systems

•

The impact of Covid-19 on the construction sector

•

Investment to drive growth and improve connectivity

•

Crowdfunding as untapped potential for public sector financing

•

Unlocking land for essential housing development

•

Embracing disruptive technologies and data driven insights

•

Investing in energy infrastructure as we transition to a low carbon future

way for organisations to raise their profile with a key audience of senior

•

Future outlook and key legal issues for the PPP market

decision-makers from across Ireland’s public, private and voluntary

•

The role of the private sector in delivering investment priorities

•

Future outlook and delivering the next generation of infrastructure

to become involved with this conference as sponsors. This is an excellent

sectors. For further information on packages available and speaking opportunities at the event call Lynda Millar on 01 661 3755.

More information available soon!

E: info@eolasmagazine.ie T: +353 (0)1 661 3755

Technology and innovation report

Sponsored by

technology and innovation report

The re-imagined workplace

Hewlett Packard Enterprise MD Maeve Culloty on the pandemic, remote working, connectivity and HPE solutions to transform the re-imagined workplace.

When the pandemic first started to spread in early 2020, business leaders were not concerned about what their workplaces would look like in the 2030s.

They were focused on making it through the first wave of disruption: Get team members working remotely; keep people safe; keep the business running.

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Now, approaching the end of 2020, leaders are still dealing with the pandemic's effects. At the same time, they're starting to look ahead. They've learned how to adjust to a new mode of work and tested out new practices. In some cases, the pandemic has changed the way organisations think about the workplace. In other cases, it has simply accelerated workplace transformations that were already underway. Either way, these leaders are now ready to reimagine the workplace of the future.

What's it going to look like? What will change? How will businesses' responses to the current pandemic reshape the way they work in the 2030s and beyond? How will employees experience change? What will success 96

look like for those embarking on the journey of transforming the workplace?

These are all questions that need to be answered.

“It’s been an intense business transition for many of our customers,” says Maeve Culloty, MD, HPE in Ireland. “The pandemic has thrust HPE into the frontline, helping to keep many organisations, including local governments around the world operating remotely. The future everyone talked about before the pandemic is now here ahead of schedule,” Culloty says. “Two years ago, HPE predicted the enterprise of the future as edge-centric, cloudenabled and data driven. Today, that’s no longer a prediction. It is a reality.

“Just a year ago, the true possibility of remote working seemed a long way off,” says Culloty. “Now, according to a Fórsa study, 80 per cent of employees say, even post-pandemic, they want to keep working from home, even if it’s just a few days a week.”

The transition to the re-imagined

workplace is future proofed with HPE’s VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) offering, according to Culloty. “VDI can be roughly defined as a desktop running on a server in a data-centre that can be accessed from virtually any device,” she says.

The promise, of course, is connectivity.

Customer organisations are able to create high-performance virtual computer environments. With newly designed VDI configurations optimised for each type of remote public sector worker.

With HPE GreenLake, HPE’s elastic-asa-service platform, for VDI, customers can select the type of workers they want to support in their organisation and the size of their remote workforce. Based on that, HPE offers customers the right set of technologies and delivers as-aservice solutions for each user type. The recently announced VDI configurations are optimised for each type of remote worker, including knowledge users, operational users and mixed users, and the right configuration is priced, built,

and shipped in predefined sizes.

Customers are billed monthly based on usage and can scale up or down as needed. This enables secure remote working optimized for all types of workers in the public and private sector.

“It helps to think of organisations and work types in three broad categories,” says Culloty.

The third operational activity set are mixed environments. These are work environments where massive desk knowledge and physical presence have always combined. Public service organisations sit in this category, think hospitals, think public facing services, think schools and libraries. “Here too some services were seen as resistant to transformation,” says Culloty. The physical touch and face-to-face aspect

“Research shows people are now more open to, for example, online consultations, and the tech is rapidly developing to facilitate this in everything from medical examinations to teaching. Think of how your children’s teachers can now switch from themselves to slides to films to interactive activities in a remote teaching session. This is just the beginning and will improve.” of these activities was and is seen as vitally important. “Rightfully and understandably,” she adds. Yet even here, the pandemic has shown that some aspects of these services are amenable to remote aspects that can potentially improve the service offering, or at least offer the end-user public alternatives. “Research shows people are now more open to, for example, online consultations, and the tech is rapidly developing to facilitate this in everything from medical examinations to teaching. Think of how your children’s teachers can now switch from themselves to slides to films to interactive activities in a remote teaching session. This is just the beginning and will improve,” says Culloty.

“Up to now in the pandemic,” she says, “a lot of what has been done has been to allow people to keep operational remotely on fairly simple levels. The capacity of everyone to adapt has been inspiring, but the opportunity is now to go far beyond that post-pandemic.

performed or advised on remotely.

That’s possible,” says Culloty.

“At the beginning of the pandemic the public sector inspired everyone in how fast they pivoted in everything from the health service to pandemic payments to just keeping the country going. It’s exciting to think of how that agility will be brought to bear on the future,” says Culloty.

“This pandemic has been a massive change, but one of our principles is to see change as an opportunity. We’d welcome further collaboration with the public sector on how the HPE team in Ireland can support Government departments to emerge from the pandemic stronger and more connected, for employees, and public service users,” Culloty concludes.

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The second set of activities are operational or manual labour environment. “Being physically present was and remains important. As such, they were sometimes seen as more resistant to transformational working practices, but the pandemic has changed this too. Even if people need to be present in workplaces, safety considerations alone may necessitate a greater separation and organising of how workers work and interact. From non-touch security identification procedures to increased automation of some tasks to even the ability to perform some tasks we think of as being hands on in a hand off fashion. We’re all familiar with seeing surgeons performing or advising on complex operations from two metres or half a world away using robot-arms or video conferencing.”

Soon, Culloty assures us, this will be an option for many tasks. “From fixing a machine to replacing a component, the whole idea of an expert technician being able to perform or advise on this remotely is now achievable,” says Culloty.

technology and innovation report

The first are what are called knowledge worker environments. “In these, most tasks are desk based, think anything from tech to finance to architecture to admin. In many ways, these are the most amenable to developments like remote working, and it’s no surprise that Silicon Valley is embracing them. You may have heard people like Mark Zuckerburg or Jack Dorsey of Twitter envisage people not just working from home but in different states or even countries if they want to,” says Culloty.

W: hpe.com/ie/en/contact-hpe T: 01 907 9337

“Think of certain public sector workers, architects or town planners, for example, who may need high graphic interfaces that they can all work on collaboratively from anywhere. That’s possible. Think of skilled manual tasks that can be 97

technology and innovation report

Open source data in government In the midst of the Irish Government’s Open Data Strategy 2017-2022, Ireland has been ranked first in Europe for open data maturity three years in row.

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Ireland has been crowned number one for open data maturity in Europe by the European Commission Open Data Maturity Study in 2017, 2018 and 2019, with the 2020 winner yet to be announced at the time of writing. These figures mark rapid and significant improvement on Ireland’s part since the inaugural study in 2015, which saw Ireland ranked 20th.

In 2019, Ireland ranked first in quality, its 92 per cent score vastly outdoing the EU average of 65 per cent. Ireland ranked second in impact, again with a score of 92 per cent, this time against an EU average of 57 per cent. The country ranked third in both policy and portal, with scores of 91 per cent and 88 per cent outdoing EU averages of 74 per cent and 67 per cent respectively.

Having risen to third in 2016, Ireland has since made the top spot its own.

The report assesses the open data maturity in the EU28 (as it was at the time of the last report) and the European Free Trade Association countries, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. The report assesses open data maturity across four dimensions: policy; portal; impact; and quality.

These four categories are further broken down into sub-criteria, where Ireland’s performance can be scrutinised in further detail. Under policy, Ireland received scores of 95 per cent, 91 per cent and 88 per cent in policy framework, governance, and implementation respectively. Under impact, awareness, political and environmental all received scores of 100 per cent, while social was marked

at 88 per cent and economic at 68 per cent. In terms of portal, features and sustainability were scored at 92 per cent and 97 per cent respectively.

Usage scored an 88 per cent grade, with data provision scoring 70 per cent.

Finally, in terms of quality, Ireland scores 100 per cent for DCAT-AP compliance, 97 per cent for both monitoring and measures and currency and completeness, and 74 per cent for deployment quality.

The survey notes that Ireland “conducts multiple activities to understand, promote, and boost open data re-use”, with special mention given to the Government’s Open Data Engagement Fund, the annual call for proposals for funding in support of data re-use projects. An example of the projects funded by the initiative cited is Dublin

Open data maturity, 2019 2500 2000 1500

technology and innovation report

1000

0

Country Austria Belgium Bulgaria Cro atia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland Fra nce Germa ny Greece Hungary Ire land Italy Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Ma lta Netherlands Poland Portugal Romania Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden United Kingdom Iceland Liechtenstein Norway Switzerland

500

Policy

Portal

Impact

Quality

Source: European Commission

City Council’s hackathon that aimed to engage those with interests in 3D and the built environment.

Open data maturity, 2019

The Engagement Fund winners for 2020/21 have recently been announced, with €28,100 of a possible €30,000 split across eight projects. The largest individual sum of €5,000 was awarded to two separate projects: to Ríonach Ní Néill of Ciotóg, who is seeking to expand the Turas Chonamara digital and audio map that charts Irish language cultural heritage and history through use of both open data and community generated data; and to Cathal Hoare, who is seeking to develop a “scenario exploration tool for the general public in order to explore the benefits of various technologies and lifestyle changes on their carbon and energy footprints”.

Ireland’s improvement in the open data field comes in the context of the country’s Open Data Strategy 20172022, which sought to build on the Open Data Initiative that was started in 2014. The Strategy set out actions under seven themes: to broaden the range of public bodies actively engaging with open data; to broaden the scope of available open data and improve the quality, quantity and range available on the Government portal, data.gov.ie; engagement with stakeholders to promote the use of open data; to support open data user

Source: European Commission

groups; to provide a framework to support and train public bodies with regard to open data; to evaluate the benefits and impact of the initiative; and to ensure that effective governance structures are in place to implement the Strategy.

Necessary actions are set out within an Implementation Plan, which also specifies the bodies responsible and the timeframe within which the actions should be completed. Key actions

include: each public body auditing their databases and putting data publication plans in place; moving to ensure that all newly created datasets are open by default; provision of procurement framework to support open data activities; improving the quality and range of services available through the portal; broadening the scop to include semi-state bodies; and the nomination of an Open Data Liaison Officer within each public body.

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Irish SMEs win out against international retailers in online shopping battle

technology and innovation report

The .IE Tipping Point Report: How e-commerce can reignite Ireland’s post-Covid-19 economy, assessed the attitudes and responses to the Covid-19 crisis of Irish consumers and SMEs, writes David Curtin, CEO of .IE, the company that manages .ie domains, the preferred online identity for business in Ireland.

The Covid-19 crisis has been incredibly challenging for Ireland for many reasons. As a nation, we have endured months of isolation and a suspension of the natural order of things. Many of us have lost loved ones. Thousands of businesses have closed, unemployment has soared, and uncertainty prevails.

However, one Covid-19-induced tipping

point has more positive long-term ramifications for Ireland and its economy. SME’s good intentions turned to urgent action to get online immediately. The aspiration to sell online went from ‘someday’ to become ‘today’.

The impossible became a reality, with professional services firms consulting online, restaurants taking online orders,

pivoting to click and collect, SMEs transforming rapidly, because they had to, in order to salvage their business during a lockdown. The consumer trend of shopping online for ‘midweek convenience’ and shopping in-store for ‘weekend experience’ was interrupted.

The insights and key findings from the .IE research are presented below.

Insights By consolidating the new learnings from the .IE Tipping Point Report with the findings of other Covid-19 related surveys, we have developed insights that show how the digital and e-commerce landscape in Ireland is changing: Solidarity and support for local business Solidarity and support for Irish businesses may never be stronger. To turn the positive sentiment into sales, Irish businesses must dial up their online competitive advantages of trust, reliability, and solidarity when their websites are competing with online international sellers.

Our research shows that Irish consumers perceive that local SMEs lag on price and product range.

Covid-19 as the catalyst

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We are moving from a face-to-face, person-to-person economy to a delivery economy. Covid-19 has been the catalyst, accelerating changes and trends already in motion. The Covid-19 experience has changed consumers’ shopping habits for good. Those businesses thinking that this is a temporary blip are mistaken. Some SMEs are responding, getting online used to be a very slow process, now it’s only taking weeks.

Government finance for SMEs can act as an accelerant Government financing is now available on a massive scale to help SME recovery. Representative organisations, having secured the funding, now need to advocate to ensure that

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SME projects include digitalisation and initiatives to modernise and digitise SMEs’ sales processes. Digital tools can improve SMEs’ productivity and competitiveness.

Digital marketing can boost sales and cashflow.

Digital investment by SMEs pays off In a difficult lockdown period for many SMEs, those that have invested in their digital and online presence have reaped the rewards at a time when other businesses are struggling. Although it’s easy for some SMEs, most SMEs who invested said they needed some assistance with selection and installation of digital tools.

The ongoing legacy of the pandemic Work from home, shop from home, entertain at home: city centres are hollowed-out as fewer workers commute on public transport. This will represent an opportunity for towns to reinvigorate themselves.

Secondly, professional services can be sold and delivered online too, despite previous disbelief. Covid-19 has broken the mould and proven that medical consultations, gym classes, and legal appointments can all be done successfully over online platforms, such as Zoom and Teams.

In the .IE Tipping Point Report, we have recorded a swing in online retail sales to Irish SMEs, away from their historically dominant international competitors. This is a significant milestone. The Covid-19 crisis has encouraged consumers to look closer to home for goods and services.

While perceptions of quality and trust have played important roles in this, a major proportion of the consumers we spoke to said that they simply wanted to support Irish businesses through a challenging period.

The consumer response to Covid-19 Despite most main street shops and office spaces being closed for business

Among the quarter of SMEs that have online sales capability, 88 per cent have noticed a change in their volume of

during lockdown, consumer demand

sales since the Covid-19 crisis began;

online has continued unabated. 72 per

77 per cent say this has been a positive

cent of consumers have either spent

change. Of that number, over a third (37

more online during the Covid-19 crisis

per cent) have noted an increase of

or the same amount as before.

more than 25 per cent.

technology and innovation report

Irish consumers are spending more online with Irish SMEs that have pivoted to help save their businesses during the lockdowns. We need to press the advantage and ensure this is not shortlived. So far, the signs are good for this omni-channel approach.

Acknowledging the significant allocation of government funding secured by business groups for the recovery of Ireland’s SME sectors, it is important to ensure that finance is dedicated to investment in digital tools and digital skills for SMEs. Properly equipped to meet consumer demand, small businesses can play a major role in reigniting Ireland’s post-Covid-19 economy.

Key findings E-commerce before Covid-19 E-commerce is worth a great deal to the Irish economy. Irish consumers are eager to spend on the internet: 95 per cent of our survey respondents say that they shop online, 82 per cent either frequently or at least some of the time.

The cohort that does all its shopping offline is now part of a shrinking minority.

Even though online spending is the norm among Irish consumers, our research shows that just 25 per cent of SMEs sell online, which implies that the other three-quarters rely entirely on physical, in-person sales.

Source: .IE Tipping Point Report

Over two-thirds (67 per cent) of consumers who had done most of their online shopping with Irish businesses explicitly stated that they wanted to show solidarity and “help Irish SMEs through the crisis”. Other factors have played an important role. Online Irish businesses are seen as faster and more reliable than international businesses, and more trustworthy.

E-commerce post-Covid-19 Social distancing, queues, and capacity limits are here to stay, until Covid-19 is controlled. Consumers are aware of this, and online shopping offers them a way to avoid inconvenience and crowds.

74 per cent say that current restrictions will impact their decision to shop in physical stores to some degree. It is clear that a ‘blended’ shopping approach is preferred by consumers.

The SME response to Covid-19 21 per cent of SMEs have invested in their online presence since the Covid-19 crisis began. Investing in online creates more ways to generate sales and connect with customers. 46 per cent of SMEs that have invested in online services during the Covid-19 crisis are busier than or as busy as before.

E: marketing@weare.ie W: www.weare.ie Research for .IE was conducted in 2020 by Core Research with 1,000 Irish consumers and 500 retail and customer-facing professional services SMEs.

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The .IE Tipping Point Report was prepared in partnership with Digital Business Ireland.

Source: .IE Tipping Point Report 101

technology and innovation report

Transport 5.0 A HelB bus on the HRT bus line in Hakaniemi, Helsinki, Finland.

Smart mobility, or Transport 5.0, is the concept relating to the digitisation of transport around the world. eolas examines the ways in which it seeks to transform transport through tools such as route optimisation software.

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Smart mobility involves the digitisation and subsequent integration of different modes of transport that aims to make traveling safer, cleaner and more efficient, with an emphasis on a reduction of the use of gasolinepowered vehicles.

ride-sharing apps (Uber, Lyft, etc), bikesharing initiatives, real-time data analytics for the optimisation of both routes and transport options, machine learning for autonomous vehicles and physical infrastructure such as parking spaces and traffic lights.

In Transport 5.0, the Internet of Things is utilised in order to facilitate communication between modes of transport and user interfaces. Smart mobility is made up of many elements, such as traffic-reducing measures like

Under Transport 5.0, cities would be equipped with sensors, data platforms and software to manage transport infrastructure and services and have them act as one cohesive coordinated system.

Benefits of smart mobility Smart mobility is designed with the expressed intention of making cities safer, cleaner and easier to navigate via the optimisation of transport. Safety outcomes arrived at through smart mobility include a reduction in road fatalities through both a reduction in numbers of cars on roads but also through advanced driver assistance systems present in autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles that warn drivers of potential hazards, and

automatic braking in emergency situations. Vehicle to Everything technology present in smart cars also automatically contacts an ambulance in the case of a crash, with traffic light patterns changing to facilitate the ambulance.

Pricing is another measure utilised to tackle congestion, where real-time traffic data is used to implement a pricing structure at peak times that prioritises high occupancy vehicles.

Through the prioritisation of high occupancy vehicles and the further adaptation of clean technology in transport, it is hoped that smart mobility can significantly contribute to transport’s journey to becoming carbon neutral. Economically, it is also hoped that the amounts of fuel wasted sitting in traffic (e.g. three billion gallons per year in the USA) and the amounts spent on traffic accidents per year can be significantly reduced through these measures.

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Aside from the traffic reduction benefits of ride-sharing and optimised public transport options, Transport 5.0, specifically the prevalence of autonomous vehicles, could reduce traffic congestion as well. Platooning, the coordination of speeds across vehicles, can limit start/stop driving and eliminate what is known as “phantom traffic”, where drivers wait for those in front of them to move before accelerating.

Mobility car sharing in St Gallen, Switzerland.

Examples of smart mobility Smart mobility is a central tenant of smart city planning, but it can also be adapted in a piecemeal fashion in order to reform transport in cities with older transport infrastructure. Examples of this include Viu Bicing in Barcelona, a bike-sharing system that is estimated to save the city €2.5 million per year.

Annual subscriptions cost €47, with users swiping cards to rent bikes from racks throughout the city.

Big Data is a decade-long project undertaken in Amsterdam that aims to integrate data collected from residents through 12,000 databases in 32 city departments. 100 pilot projects have resulted from this data including simple solutions such as refuse collection vehicles now collecting both recycling and general waste in order to reduce

A boat in Songdo, South Korea.

the number of trucks on the road.

The Songdo Business District in

Helsinki is often noted for its significant investment in becoming a smart city and its investment in smart mobility goes hand-in-hand with that aim; it is a stated goal for the city to eliminate the need for car ownership by 2025. The city provides an on-demand mobility system that calculates the fastest and cheapest way for commuters to reach their destination and allows the users to select public or private options such as ride-sharing, buses, automated cars, and transport for children. A platform named BOAT, launched in October 2018, allows Helsinki residents to access waterfronts and nearby islands via on-demand boats.

Incheon, South Korea, is perhaps the most notable large-scale smart city experiment with significant investment in smart mobility. Built on 1,500 acres of reclaimed land and designed for 300,000 residents, Songdo is bikefriendly and car free, with over 100 buildings given Leadership in energy and Environmental Design certification.

Songdo’s subway system connects it to Seoul and Incheon, it has a water taxi system in place to allow residents to traverse its canals and its stated goal for the future is to have a bus stop within a 12-minute walk of all residents.

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eInvoicing: A building block for the digitalisation of Procure to Pay technology and innovation report

Achieving widespread support for eInvoicing, via the Peppol network, is a significant step, given the diverse invoice-processing landscape in the public sector. Responsibility and operations for invoice processing are highly devolved across more than 8,000 public bodies, with many disparate implementations and processes. Each public body is expected to avail of a shared services solution or establish their own eInvoicing capability.

In 2020, the public sector reached an important milestone towards the greater use of digital to do business, in the form of electronic invoicing (eInvoicing) in public procurement.

Declan McCormack, eInvoicing Ireland Programme Manager in the Office of Government Procurement (OGP), outlines the importance of collaboration, communications and above all, suppliers, in the next stage of this digitalisation journey.

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Procurement accounts for approximately €15 billon of public money per annum.

The timely and efficient receipt and processing of invoices for the supplies, services and works, that businesses provide to the public sector is vital to the management of the public finances, the delivery of public services and the operation of businesses within the economy. Submitting electronic invoices is now a real and widespread option for suppliers to the public sector.

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Since April 2020, all public bodies must be able to receive and process electronic invoices (eInvoicing) in accordance with the European eInvoicing Directive (2014/55/EU). This Directive applies to invoices that relate to public procurement contracts within all EU member states.

Over the last two years, the eInvoicing Ireland initiative has helped public bodies understand how they can prepare for and meet this legal requirement and to understand the broader benefits of digitalisation.

Collaboration to establish a standardised model for eInvoicing, across the whole of the public sector was vital in order to accommodate the decentralised nature of invoice processing. “While the initiative is led by the Office of Government Procurement, the eInvoicing Ireland programme is very much a collaboration with business and technology services leaders from across our public sector partners, in health, central government, local government and education. This collaboration and moving forward together has been the programme’s real strength,” explains McCormack.

While there is an obligation on public bodies to be able to receive and process, it remains optional for suppliers to choose to submit their invoices electronically in accordance with the European eInvoicing Standard. There is no legal obligation for suppliers in that regard.

Informed suppliers are key to driving uptake The focus is now moving to raising awareness among suppliers as more public bodies seek to increase the volume of invoices being submitted electronically, as eInvoices. Several initiatives are underway across the public sector, as the main finance shared services functions and a number of individual public bodies, look to suppliers to help them jointly reap the benefits of the digitalisation of invoice processing.

However, businesses will be no strangers to requests to engage with client initiatives to adopt new digitalbased practices aimed at creating efficiencies. In many cases, these initiatives are primarily focused on benefits for the client organisation rather than the supplier. Also, the diverse range of approaches and technologies suppliers are asked to adopt by their client-base can on the whole be costly and undermine any potential benefits for the suppliers.

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McCormack believes: “The national eInvoicing approach aims to be suppliercentric, facilitating a common method of submitting eInvoices to all public bodies, providing a ‘connect once and connect to all’ option for suppliers to reach their public sector clients.”

McCormack also acknowledges that a limited awareness among suppliers, of the eInvoicing model in public procurement is a key challenge to driving uptake. “Support by all public bodies for the European eInvoicing Standard, and the use of the Peppol network for delivery of eInvoices, simplifies the choices for suppliers and helps to reduce or avoid costs when they are considering investing in doing business digitally with public sector clients at home and internationally. This is a message we need to continue to communicate with the help of our sector partners, to help businesses make an informed choice on eInvoicing,” he explains.

An example of this is the eInvoicing Ireland Supplier Factsheet which has been recently made available online at the OGP’s eInvoicing Ireland website (See Figure 1).

In conclusion, McCormack recognises it is not sufficient to assume a ‘build it and they will come’ philosophy to the adoption of eInvoicing. “eInvoicing is a building block, an enabler for the public sector and businesses to embrace

digitalisation. It is vital that we provide the information and supports that demonstrate a consistent and practical approach to digitalisation with benefits to the public sector and business alike,” he says.

Office of Government Procurement eInvoicing supports for public bodies To facilitate public bodies in reaching compliance with the eInvoicing Directive, the Office of Government Procurement established a National Framework Agreement for the provision of eInvoicing and Peppol networking services to the public sector in Ireland. The eInvoicing Ireland Steering Committee, comprising senior representatives from the four OGP sector partners across Central and Local Government, Health and Education, informed the establishment of the Framework. The comprehensive Framework, with three separate Lots, offers services and solutions which are compliant with the European Standard on eInvoicing as prescribed by the eInvoicing Directive and caters for the diverse range of needs and requirements across all public sector bodies.

The eInvoicing service providers on the Framework are connecting public bodies to the Peppol network and offering solutions and services to enable basic compliance with the Directive as well as a more fully integrated approach to eInvoicing, facilitating ‘straight-through

processing’. In this way the eInvoices can be transmitted directly into back office systems as structured digital data fields and then processed for payment, allowing goods receipting, tracking and spend analysis, whilst minimising the need for manual intervention. eInvoicing and straight-through processing are helping businesses pay and receive money faster and more efficiently.

For further information Please log onto www.ogp.gov.ie/einvoicing or contact: einvoicing@ogp.gov.ie Accessing the Framework For anyone looking to access the OGP eInvoicing Framework, please log onto the OGP Buyer Zone via www.ogp.gov.ie and select/ search as

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“There is a strong appetite across our partners in the public sector for enduring collaboration on this digital journey. A common priority is to address the supplier awareness challenge through clear and consistent messaging and broader engagement with the supplier community. As we move into 2021, there will be a focus on increasing communications with suppliers. Sharing information explaining the benefits and option that exists to submit invoices electronically to the public sector, the experiences of others, and the practical steps to make it happen.”

Figure 1: eInvoicing Ireland Supplier Factsheet

follows: Category: Managed Services Keyword: ‘PEPPOL’ or ‘eInvoicing systems’ OGP Clients must register to gain access to the Buyer zone available to all public service buyers accessing live contracts/frameworks.

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Strategy for quantum technology in Ireland Irish physicist J.C. SĂŠamus Davis, a professor at UCC and Oxford University, as well as an emeritus professor at Cornell University, who was awarded the Olli V Lounasmaa Memorial Prize in 2020 for his contribution to quantum physics, outlines the practical repercussions of a move to superconductive quantum computers.

Conventional information technology Programmable electronic computers have been available to governments since the 1940s, to businesses since the 1960s and to individuals since the 1980s. Today, the world’s fastest conventional supercomputers (Summit and Fugaku) achieve more than 1020 operations per second, the computational equivalent of about 100 billion iPhones or about one human brain. We all appreciate the vast and revolutionary changes wrought by such information technology on human society and life. What is less well appreciated is that all this computing power is utterly inadequate to address many of the gravest challenges now facing our civilisation.

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Examples of these challenges include: first-principles design of biomolecules with the complexity of the Covid-19 spike protein; prediction of the consequences from engineering the human genome; prediction of the Earth’s climate and ecosystems decades in the future; prediction and discovery of extraordinary new materials for advanced technology; optimised management of individual and institutional logistics at largest scales; optimisation and stabilisation of the global financial system; or encryption and especially decryption of corporate and national data.

A key characteristic of such profoundly difficult problems is that the state of any element in the system depends on the simultaneous state of many (perhaps all) other elements. At relevant

scale, these problems are completely intractable to conventional computing.

Quantum information technology The promise of quantum information technology (QIT) is to accelerate computation to the point that these and many other undreamt problems can be solved. This has generated a wave of quantum computer initiatives and start-ups that is fast becoming a tsunami. Among the leading companies now focusing on quantum information technology R&D are: for superconductive qubits IBM, Google, Rigetti, Alice&Bob and IQM; for atomic qubits ColdQuanta and AtomComputing; for ionic qubits Honeywell, IonQ and Alpine; and for photonic qubits Xanadu, PsiQuantum and Orca.

All this accelerating innovation is motivated by the dream of replacing our conventional, semiconductor-based systems, with a radically new and far more potent information technology based on the full power of quantum physics.

Quantum mechanics

Consider the simplest quantum system, one with just two possible states and often referred to by engineers as a ‘qubit’. To visualise the counterintuitive properties of such systems, Schrödinger famously used the meme of a cat with two possible states: dead or alive. Physicists, more prosaically, label these same two states as |0 ⟩ or |1 ⟩. Typically, the qubit is stable in its lowest energy state |0 ⟩ but it can be boosted into the higher energy state |1 ⟩. Key for quantum computing is that the qubit can be placed in a mixture of both states α|0 ⟩+ β|1 ⟩, a situation Schrödinger described as his cat being both dead and alive at the same time.

This quantum mixed state is unavoidably vulnerable to decoherence, in which the qubit spontaneously falls back to the low-energy state |0 ⟩, and the quantum mixture is destroyed.

Decoherence is the most pernicious enemy of quantum computing.

Quantum entanglement occurs when there are two Schrödinger cats that interact with each other. Suppose one cat is blue and with possible states α|0 ⟩+ β|1 ⟩ and the other red with states γ|0 ⟩+ δ|1 ⟩. As they interact, the overall state of the two-cat system can evolve into a|0 ⟩ |0 ⟩+ b|0 ⟩ |1 ⟩+ c|1 ⟩ |0 ⟩+ d|1 ⟩ |1 ⟩. This is a quantum mixture of both cats dead, blue dead with red alive, blue alive with read dead, and both cats alive, with all four possibilities coexisting at the same time.

John Stewart Bell, one of Ireland’s greatest physicists, showed theoretically how this extraordinary

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Quantum mechanics is the most successful of all physical theories, correctly describing, explaining and predicting phenomena from quarks to stars. Present technologies such as magnetic resonance imaging, atomicclocks for GPS, lasers for fibre optic data networks, wireless receivers for 5G and many more, all operate based on quantum mechanics. But the full potential of quantum physics for advanced technology is still far from being achieved.

“Next in urgency, we need to create an extensive quantum science and technology ecosystem in Ireland.” situation can and does occur in nature.

So, entangling two qubits creates four simultaneous arrangements, entangling three qubits, eight arrangements, and so on. Completely entangling N qubits with each other would then create up to 2N possible arrangements, all coexisting at the same time. This exponential increase of controllable information, which was first pointed out by Richard Feynman, is the deep reason why quantum computers hold such promise.

Quantum parallelism For conventional computers, calculation speed can be increasing by splitting a calculation into N subsets and then carrying out each sub-calculation in parallel on one of N central processing units (CPU). That’s the basis of highspeed video processing, today.

Obviously, to quadruple the speed by using parallel processing, one must quadruple the number of CPUs. So, to increase the speed of conventional computation by a factor of say 250 in

this manner, one would need to build about a million billion CPUs in parallel.

An absurd proposition.

Now consider a 50 qubit quantum processing unit (QPU). If every qubit were entangled with all the others, then 250 possible arrangements would coexist at the same time on the QPU. In principle, this would allow 250 calculations to occur in parallel on one single QPU. And 50 qubit QPUs are not absurd. Elementary versions already exist and function, although complete entanglement of all qubits is still impossible. Thus, even though profoundly challenging to quantum engineers, deeply frustrating to corporate investors, and highly concerning to governments, the promise of quantum computing is also extremely attractive.

Qubit platforms For any practical implementation, a quantum computer must consist of N

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whether to enter that scientific premier league.” qubits, each individually quantum coherent, controllable and measurable, and capable of at least pair-wise quantum entanglement. Several quite distinct device platforms have been developed as the basis for quantum computing.

Atomic quantum computers consist of a row of atoms, often Rubidium, held in position at ultra-high-vacuum by laser light. Because these are atoms, maintaining quantum coherence is straightforward, controlling each by a separate laser is possible, and multiqubit entanglement has recently been demonstrated.

Ionic quantum computers are also based on a row of atoms, but in this case each is electrically charged and held electrostatically in position at ultrahigh-vacuum. Control and entanglement is achieved by lasers, analogous to the atom case.

Photonic quantum computers operate based on photons – quanta of light. Onchip semiconductor photonics is used to generate photons, each of which can be configured as a qubit, controlled by optical devices, and read out by superconductive single-photon detectors. A key long-term advantage of photonic quantum computing would be a capability to operate in air at room temperature, but this milestone has not yet been reached.

Finally, there is a solid-state electronics platform akin to semiconductor microelectronics, but now based on superconductor microelectronics.

Superconductors are materials in which all the elections occupy a single macroscopic quantum state. So, even

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though each superconductive qubit contains billions of atoms, it still operates quantum mechanically like a single giant atom.

Major cryogenic equipment is required to cool each superconductive QPU to millikelvin temperatures, i.e. far below the temperature of deep space. On the other hand, functioning 50+ qubit superconductive quantum computers are already commercially available and provide cloud accessible quantum computing services.

Fantastic roadmaps In the 1940s, a data bit could be stored and manipulated using mechanical latches, punch cards or electrical vacuum tubes. Few could then have predicted that the ultimate device platform for convectional information technology would be the semiconductor transistor. For quantum computing, we now find ourselves in the analogous situation. A number of functioning device platforms exist, but which of these, if any, will eventually dominate quantum information technology is unknown.

Although technical roadmaps have already been developed and published for each of these platforms, the utility of any given roadmap remains uncertain because the ultimate destination is unknown. Nevertheless, cloud-based access to quantum computing services using a variety of experimental platforms is already flourishing, and uptake by universities, corporations and governments is accelerating rapidly.

National strategy Because of the potential for revolutionary technological, scientific and economic change, along with the uncertainty on whether and how this will occur, flexible strategic planning is required. At the most elementary level, we need a documented national quantum technology policy, based on the global status quo of QIT and outlining a strategic framework within which to move forward.

Next in urgency, we need to create an extensive quantum science and technology ecosystem in Ireland.

Starting from today’s strong baseline of quantum research skills, we should expand and accelerate education and training of scientists and engineers in quantum physics, quantum devices, quantum software, and quantum computer operations and applications.

Developing this quantum-skilled workforce could probably be achieved without reinventing the wheel, based on existing commercially available quantum computer technology.

Finally, there are the profound scientific and technical barriers to commercialising compact, economical, ambient quantum computing and a quantum internet. That goal is probably decades away and, for Ireland to pursue it, large scale investment in leading-edge quantum research and development would be required. The final strategic decision we now face is whether to enter that scientific premier league.

Contact J.C. Séamus Davis Professor of Quantum Physics, University College Cork, Ireland Professor of Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK Professor of Physics Emeritus, Cornell University, NY, USA Max Planck Fellow, Graduate Centre for Quantum Materials, Germany T: (+353) 083 039 2937 E: jcseamusdavis@gmail.com W: www.davis-group-quantum-matterresearch.ie

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Working collaboratively at a time of national emergency ongoing initiative, the two organisations had strong experience of working collaboratively and had the right people and processes in place to ensure strong data governance. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) data hub is built using software supplied by Esri Ireland, a commercial organisation that supplies the geographic information system (GIS) technology upon which GeoHive is built.

In January, no-one could have foreseen how quickly Covid-19 would spread around the world. And no-one could have anticipated the lockdown and other unprecedented measures that the Irish Government would need to introduce urgently to help save lives in Ireland. Yet, Ordnance Survey Ireland was ready nonetheless, writes Hugh Mangan, General Manager, Business and Marketing at OSi. Over recent years, OSi has made significant investments in creating a national geospatial data hub for Ireland, in building collaborative relationships and in implementing strong data governance. This meant that when the threat of a global pandemic began to emerge, OSi had the technology platform, the partnerships and the processes already in place to support the government’s response to the looming national emergency.

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From the very outset of the crisis, senior Government officials, senior medical officers, national health emergency teams and local authorities all started asking the same questions: how many cases of Covid-19 are there in Ireland and, critically, where are they? Everyone needed answers quickly because huge decisions needed to be made about introducing a lockdown, closing businesses and preparing healthcare organisations for a possible surge in patients. It was therefore clear, from the very beginning, that statistical and geospatial data would have a critical role to play in the national response to Covid-19 in Ireland.

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Responding rapidly in a national emergency OSi was able to respond rapidly to the emerging health crisis because it didn’t need to create anything new. More than four years earlier, the organisation had launched GeoHive, a spatial data infrastructure comprising people, process and technology. Highlighted in Ireland’s Public Sector Data Strategy as Ireland’s geospatial data hub, GeoHive provided a ready-made, proven and highly versatile platform for sharing geospatial and related data in Ireland.

OSi also already had a strong working relationship with Ireland’s Central Statistics Office (CSO), underpinned by an official memorandum of understanding. The strength of the partnership between OSi and CSO is unusual across Europe but proved highly advantageous.

OSi and CSO had been working together for more than two years to build Ireland’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) data hub for monitoring progress towards achieving the United Nations SDG goals. As a result of this

When Covid-19 began to emerge as a very real threat to life in Ireland, the SDG group extended its focus to include Covid-19 and built new capabilities on GeoHive to address the challenges of the pandemic. At the same time, the group expanded to include: the AllIreland Research Observatory (AIRO), based at Maynooth University, for data handling and spatial analysis; and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (DHLGH), OSi’s parent department and a key player in the local authority space.

This new group, called the GeoHive Covid-19 Response Coordination Group, was set up within days with the vision to provide key data and tools to inform Ireland’s operational intelligence and situational awareness efforts in response to the Covid-19 outbreak. A collaboration between public and private sector organisations, led by the public sector, the group had a formally defined purpose and was guided by the mantra “collect once; use many times”. It wanted to ensure that data pertinent to the health crisis was collected once and shared effectively via GeoHive where appropriate, so that different government departments didn’t waste time and resources duplicating effort on data collection, data management and analysis by the CSO played the key role in data governance and oversight.

Delivering timely data to inform critical decisions The GeoHive Covid-19 Response Coordination Group hit the ground

The publicly accessible Covid-19 data hub was swiftly followed by the launch of a similar dashboard specifically for the National Public Health Emergency Team, Ireland’s Chief Medical Officer and other senior decision makers. This more expansive dashboard provided over 100 National Public Health Emergency Team key personnel with daily updates on a wide range of indicators, including the capacity in intensive care units around the country, giving them the daily insight they needed to inform critical decisions throughout the crisis.

Throughout the lockdown, local authorities in Ireland were responsible for engaging with voluntary

number of cases and deaths to date, on a geographic basis, by local electoral divisions along with a range of other data and visualisations and has received over 100 million views since its launch.” organisations and coordinating support in the community, particularly for vulnerable members of society who were shielding or self-isolating at home.

The GeoHive Covid-19 Response Coordination Group stepped forward to support local authorities and used GeoHive once again as a platform for recording data, such as how many calls the local authority received and how many related to concerns about social isolation or the meals service. Updated daily, this public and secure dashboard covered all local authorities in the country, allowing the DHPLG to monitor the level of support being delivered in communities all around the country.

When the Taoiseach’s office started planning for reopening the economy, the GeoHive Covid-19 Response Coordination Group created a report and a dashboard showing the locations of retail units, their type, size and number of employees. The group was able to deliver far more detailed intelligence than government officials had thought possible – and did so within a short timescale. This insight then informed the government’s ‘Economic Considerations for Reinstating Economic Activity’ report and helped to reassure the Taoiseach’s office about the declining risks associated with reopening retail businesses earlier than initially planned.

There are many other examples too of data hubs, dashboards, reports and analysis that the GeoHive Covid-19 Response Coordination Group was able to deliver, at speed, to meet a specific requirement during the crisis. In one project, the group created a data hub showing the average width of footpaths to help town planners at local councils identify where social distancing measures would be hard to apply, particularly around busy retail locations.

In another project the group created a dashboard for the Garda to help it monitor traffic mobility and journey trends during lockdown. An Garda Síochána could then make better informed decisions about where to set

up roadside checks, to make sure people travelling were undertaking essential journeys during lockdown. In each of these cases, and the other projects described above, GeoHive delivered the data that people needed, in a format that they could understand, enabling them to make the best possible decisions at an incredibly challenging time.

Standing prepared for whatever happens next When we look back in months to come, there will doubtless be many lessons that we can learn, as a country, from our experiences with Covid-19. However, we can already appreciate the key role that geospatial data and apps have played in keeping people informed about a fast-changing situation, revealing epidemiology patterns and giving people the information they need to make confident, though difficult, decisions. In many respects, this health crisis has validated the investment in GeoHive, proving to OSi, the Government and our partners that it is indeed the authoritative, standardised public sector data collaboration platform that the country needs.

Looking ahead, Ireland can now feel certain that OSi, their public sector colleagues and private sector partners have a proven platform, well-established processes and the strong working relationships to respond to as yet unforeseeable emergencies. Whatever challenges Ireland’s government may face in the months and years ahead, it is reassuring to know that OSi was ready when it mattered most and will be ready again for whatever happens next.

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Over time, there was an increasing desire for Covid-19 information on a timely basis and the Department of Health (DoH) chaired a collaborative Covid data co-ordination group which included representatives from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC), Health Service Executive (HSE), Health Intelligence Unit (HIU), CSO, OSi and Maynooth University (MU) to agree for geographic dissemination of Covid-19 incidence in Ireland and release more data to the general public. The group developed a new public GeoHive site, giving users the option to explore the data, as open data, for the first time.

This public Covid hub shows the cumulative number of cases and deaths to date, on a geographic basis, by local electoral divisions along with a range of other data and visualisations and has received over 100 million views since its launch.

“The public Covid hub shows the cumulative

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running, driven by the enthusiasm of everyone involved, all of whom understood the critical importance of the work they were doing and believed it would make a difference to Ireland’s ability to defend itself against the coronavirus. The group began to collect Covid-19 data from a variety of official sources and built a range of interactive dashboards and web apps on GeoHive for presenting the data via a variety of secure, public and private data hubs, recognising that different groups of people needed to see different data sets in different ways. The first GeoHive data hub was launched on 18 March, a week before the government closed almost all businesses, venues and public amenities and nine days before the full lockdown began. It provided everyone with a visual overview of the number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 and deaths in the country and was updated daily. In less than four months, it received over 750,000 hits during March to June and 650,000 hits on mobile devices.

Ordnance Survey Ireland Phoenix Park, Dublin 8 Eircode D08 F6E4 T: +353-1-802-5300 E: customer.services@osi.ie

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Government reviews innovation fund A government review into the €500 million Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund has found that applicants have been left confused about the fund’s focus.

The main source of confusion for applicants was said to be a lack of clarity over whether or not the fund was intended for “radical innovations” or “disruptive innovations”; the difference between the two being that radical innovation “involves a major change in technology, but unlike disruptive innovation, it reinforces the business model”.

The €500 million fund was established as part of Project Ireland 2040 and is managed by the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment in collaboration with Enterprise Ireland with the idea of providing seed funding for the latest of disruptive technology innovations being carried out in Ireland.

The review’s authors have urged the Department to be clearer in its outlines of the innovations it is seeking to back financially via the fund; otherwise, they warn, the number and type of applications will be limited.

The review, carried out by the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service, states: “The fund may have to consider if there is more focus on the ‘novel’ aspect of the technology or the

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‘disruptive’ element and to make this clearer in the programme guidance…

While the projects funded represent significant innovations and have the potential for large economic benefits, there may need to be increased clarity on what is meant by ‘disruptive technology’ in the guidance to applicants and assessors.”

At the time of the review, €140 million in funding had been provided to 47 projects through the fund, with the €500 million scheduled to be spent fully over a 10-year period. 159 project partners have received funding approval, 63 of these being SMEs. Funding awards have so far been primarily focused on innovations in the fields of health and wellbeing and ICT. Among the review’s key findings was that the fund is a distinct new programme among other research, development and innovation supports due to “a combination of the scale of funding available for projects, the focus on collaboration and commercialisation, in combination with its funding of disruptive innovation”.

It also praises the fund’s commitment to

developing the work of SMEs, with at least one SME member required for a consortium to apply for funding. Among the review’s recommendations are that this focus on SMEs is maintained. Also recommended is the idea of exploring “challenge-based funding, or more sectoral-focused calls, as a way to further develop interest and applications from certain sectors and address a broader spectrum of societal challenges as laid out in the National Planning Framework”.

The fund, now in its third call for applicants, opened on 24 September.

Criteria laid down for applicants include the requirements that their projects alter markets, or the way businesses operate, or that they involve new products or the emergence of new business models. The call also states the projects should fall within the Government’s Research Priority Areas 2018-2023, answering the review’s call for sectoral focus. These priority areas are: ICT; health and wellbeing; food; energy, climate action and sustainability; manufacturing and materials; and innovation in services and business processes.

Irish Renewable Energy Summit 2021 Thursday 25th February Online conference The 2021 Irish Renewable Energy Summit will provide a valuable opportunity to bring together the key stakeholders from across the energy sector, and those who interact with the sector to discuss how the contribution from renewable energy can be maximised and implemented most effectively.

Featured speakers:

Eamon Ryan, TD Minister for Environment, Climate and Communications

Catharina Sikow-Magny Acting Head of Renewables Directorate-General for Energy, European Commission

Jim Gannon Commissioner Commission for Regulation of Utilities

More info: T: +353 (0)1 661 3755 W: www.renewableenergysummit.energyireland.ie E: info@energyireland.ie

Geertje Schuitema

William Walsh

Associate Professor UCD

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CEO

Organised by

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EESC: Vice President for Communication Cillian Lohan Ireland’s Cillian Lohan has recently been elected as Vice President for Communication for the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC). He talks to Odrán Waldron about his goals over his two-and-ahalf-year tenure, how Europe can communicate better and how to build consensus around agriculture and the environment.

Having been a member of the EESC (the European institution designed to give voice to non-parliamentary stakeholders in the European process such as businesses and trade unions) for five years, Lohan was elected Vice President for Communication in October 2020, with a mandate lasting until March 2023. He admits that his communications role is somewhat ironic: “Before I joined, I didn’t know what the EESC was, so I’m aware that it can be a bit of a mystery. Ironically, the role I’ve ended up in is trying to communicate how the EU works.”

Founded by the Treaty of Rome along with the European Commission, Council and Parliament, the EESC was designed to give voice to those outside of the traditional parliamentary political process.

Its 329 members are divided into three

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groups, as Lohan explains: “The first group is the business sector, the second is the trade unions and the third is Diversity Europe, everybody else who is involved in the social partnerships, such as farmers, disability groups, consumer groups, environmental NGOs, etc. It’s within that group that I have done my work within the EESC.” The presidency rotates through the three groupings, with the business sector currently holding the presidency, leaving Diversity Europe’s Lohan with one vice presidency portfolio and the trade union sector with the other.

Lohan says that his role is “focused on communications, the press office, relationships with other European institutions and with national networks”.

The outward-facing responsibilities of Lohan’s new role are centred around the

EU’s current focus on climate action, namely the European Green Deal. “The traditional agenda is never set by us, we are responding to the political agenda set by the Council,” Lohan explains. “That has already been set out by Ursula von der Leyen for the next few years and it is very much focused on delivering the European Green Deal. Within that, there’s going to be a whole range of legislation in different sectors, from transport to food production. In every sector, there will be a range of legislation designed to deliver on the Green Deal. That’s going to be the focus over my tenure and it’s for me to try to coordinate the input of civil society from the EESC perspective on the legislation as it’s being designed to deliver the Green Deal.”

Lohan then explains that his second goal

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is one more focused on the EESC itself: “The second focus for me is internal, the structures within the committee because some of them are quite archaic and don’t function as well as they could do. With this huge institutional approach, lots of people, lots of staff, there have been difficulties. As a committee, there have been difficulties with the EESC operating effectively, it has done loads of productive stuff but can always be improved, so that will be my focus internally.”

Lohan has been involved in the environmental NGO sector since 2010 and is a graduate of University College Cork’s BSc in Environmental Science. He currently serves as the CEO for the Green Economy Federation NGO and says that his experience in this area both primed him well for his new role and convinced him that Brussels was the arena to make change happen.

“I worked through the Irish environmental network and we got great access to government ministers, good access to consultation processes and I saw firsthand how trying to lobby effectively works when you’re a group that doesn’t carry a lot of political power,” he says.

“What I kept coming up against was different ministers saying, ‘I’m sorry, this is set by Brussels’. Now I’m able to see that from the other side, I’ve been a member of the committee for five years and it’s given me a really good understanding of the strong things that come from Europe that allow stakeholders to challenge their national governments.

“It has also shown me that there is sometimes a tendency for national governments to blame Brussels for anything that is tricky or difficult, which is not a real representation of how these things are meant to work.”

In his new role, Lohan will assume responsibility for the communications of the EESC at a time when the importance of clear communication has been laid bare by both the climate crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic. Lohan says that he sees a “complete disconnect people have from what they feel is important in their day-to-day lives compared to what’s going on in a bureaucratic setting far away from them”.

“I think the language we use around these things is awful,” he expands. “I slip into it myself, but it’s so easy to use the buzzwords that cause people to switch off. Even if you use the word ‘Brussels’ some people just switch off. If you say ‘legislation’, ‘policy development’, ‘stakeholder engagement’, or ‘facilitating dialogue’, they don’t communicate anything because people just switch off. I want to change how we communicate as an institution, to do it in more day-to-day language that people can relate to. It’s not that people don’t understand the buzzwords or the terminology, it’s that it’s not interesting to people.”

Concluding from his home in Skibbereen, Lohan argues that his rural base gives him a key insight into one of the defining issues for climate change in Ireland and Europe: agriculture. “The one thing I come back to is communicating the need to have a transition without it always being farmers versus environmentalists.

We need to do more at a government level arguing in Europe to those that govern how the money is spent. It comes back to the funding model that’s there, how can we ask farmers to change their practices if we’re not going to fund them to do it? How can we blame anyone for trying to make a living through what

they’re doing if we’re not willing to support the change?

“The funding coming from the CAP penalises farmers for non-productive land.

If we want farmers to be stewards of the land and to value and protect biodiversity, then we have to pay them for that land. I don’t see that argument happening enough in the Council or the Parliament.

It’s a position the EESC has taken, that farmers must be funded for everything they do. If you only fund people based on food production, you can’t blame them for focusing heavily on food production.

“The other thing to remember is that Ireland has a massive competitive advantage when it comes to nonproductive land such as hedgerows, bogland, wet marshes, different types that are not producing food. We should be pulling out all the stops to ensure farmers are funded and compensated for maintaining and managing that land because it’s for the greater good. I think that’s where we could find an alliance between environmental groups and farmers, to say that if institutions want this then they need to show some money for environmental sustainability. That way we can drive a more consensus-led transition.”

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The politics of Brexit The UK’s expected decision to U-turn on plans to undermine the Ireland/Northern Ireland Protocol does little to mitigate the Brexit impact in Ireland, writes David Whelan.

For those closely following the twists and turns of the Brexit negotiations between the UK and the EU on the future trading relationship, the UK’s decision to roll back on its plans to break international law, through its Internal Markets Bill, will come as no surprise.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson caught many in the EU by surprise in September when he revealed the Bill which effectively gave British ministers discretion over implementation of parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The clear intent to break international law

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sparked widespread anger, not just on the EU side, with Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney TD instantly deploying Ireland’s ambassador in London to meet with Downing Street, but also within Prime Minister Johnson’s own party. Talk of rebellion spread throughout Westminster with former Prime Minister Theresa May re-emerging to led warnings that any such move would damage Britain’s standing in the world.

remained sceptical of the UK’s

However, those who had analysed the UK’s approach to the negotiations to date, particularly under Johnson’s premiership,

Internal Market Bill, offered as an act of

commitment to see such a bold move through.

For the cynics, the Internal Markets Bill represented little more than a threat to the EU, a bid to soften up their rigid approach to the negotiations, as proved to be the case on 8 December.

Proximity to a deal was always viewed as the perfect cover for the UK to neuter the concession to the EU while at the same time saving face at home.

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And so, in the build up to Johnson’s face to face meeting with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the UK Prime Minister announced the scrapping of all “lawbreaking” clauses from the legislation, in a move to improve relations.

European Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič and UK Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove announced that the EU UK Joint Committee, established to implement the Withdrawal Agreement, had come to an agreement which would see the UK withdraw all clauses in the Internal Market Bill, which would have breached the Northern Ireland Protocol and a pledge to not introduce any similar provisions in the UK’s Taxation Bill.

Solutions were found to questions around food imports from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, EU state aid rules, the supply of medicine and the EU’s presence in the North. The Joint Committee also reached agreement on whether goods originating in Great Britain would be at risk of crossing the border to the south and potentially attracting a tariff.

The Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland was drawn up to ensure the avoidance of a hard border in Ireland and protect the integrity of the single market, regardless of the outcome of the future relationship negotiations.

It allows the North to remain legally part of the UK customs territory but be subject to certain provisions of EU law. Under the Protocol, goods from Northern Ireland will have free and open access to the EU single market, however, necessary checks and controls will take place on goods entering Northern Ireland from Britain and other third countries.

In September 2020, the Government outlined “substantial challenges” for supply chains and trade flows which would require checks and controls in both directions on EU-UK trade, with or without a deal, in its Brexit Readiness Action Plan.

Any imports or exports between Ireland and Great Britain, be they by a company or an individual, will require the completion of a customs declaration. Trade in WTO terms would mean an addition of tariffs and quotas in trade in both directions, with particular impact on the agri-food sector.

“Proximity to a deal was always viewed as the perfect cover for the UK to neuter the Internal Market Bill, offered as an act of concession to the EU while at the same time saving face at home.”

Some of the key impacts in the future relationship between Ireland and the UK are: The economic cost of Brexit to Ireland is an estimate. Early indications were that the long-term cost of a no deal scenario could be as much as a 5 per cent reduction in real output, while a smooth transition would still have inflicted a 2.67 per cent reduction. Covid-19 has thrown further uncertainty on economic forecasts but undoubtedly barriers between Ireland and its closest trading partner, even without tariffs, will be economically damaging.

This is largely due to disruption in trade. Disruption is envisaged between east-west trade due to delays at ports and businesses capability to meet regulatory requirements. These delays will have knock on impacts on wholesale and retail supply chain and disruptions will see lower exports to the UK as businesses seek more favourable markets.

Disruption in trade will also apply for services. From 1 January 2021, the automatic facility in EU law that has generally allowed UK businesses, as businesses established in an EU member state, to provide services in another EU member state, will end. UK businesses will no longer enjoy such benefits as freedom of establishment, a common regulatory and supervisory environment, or the EU’s system of recognition of professional qualifications.

The concept of ‘passporting’, which implies that authorisations issued by one member state based on EU rules are sufficient to access the entire single market, will also no longer apply to the UK. Any barriers to trade or tariffs will ultimately filter back to consumers. Any increased costs, including customs bureaucracy, will enhance trade disruption which will result in the potential closure of businesses and loss of jobs. The cost of living is likely to increase and disruptions to every day life will occur in the form of online retail purchases to from the UK, the exchange of personal data with UK entities and for transport services to, from and through Great Britain.

Any barriers are also a threat to the status quo of British-Irish relations. The Government has outlined plans to carry out a strategic review of the relationship in 2021, recognising that the operation of the Common Travel Area, and the safeguarding of reciprocal rights in social protection, education, and healthcare will require a strong relationship.

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Doireann Ní Ghríofa: A Ghost in the Throat

Clare native Doireann Ní Ghríofa is one of Ireland’s most celebrated contemporary poets. Her bilingual poetry has won prestigious awards at home and abroad, including the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2016.

She talks to Odrán Waldron, in both English and Irish, about her prose debut, A Ghost in the Throat, which explores the famous “Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire” and its writer, Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill.

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Tosnaíonn Ní Ghríofa ag labhairt faoina caidreamh leis an nGaeilge agus miníonn sí an áit ina d’fhoghlaim sí an teanga.

“Táim an-buíoch do mo thuismitheoirí gur chuireadar i nGaelscoil mé nuair a bhí mé ceithre bliana d’aois,” deir sí. “Is dócha nuair atáimid ag breathnú siar ar ár saol féin, go mbíonn sé soléir, na nóiméid bheaga sin ina gcuirtear ar bhóithrín thú.

Domsa agus mé ceithre bliana d’aois, thosaigh mo thuismitheoirí i nGaelscoil mé agus thosaigh mé ar bhóithrín na Gaelainne.

“Ní raibh Gaelainn sa bhaile againn, is Béarla amháin a bhí againn. Tá beagán Gaeilge ag m’athair agus Gaeilge líofa go leor ag mo Mham ach Béarla amháin a bhí sa bhaile againn. Gan an cinneadh sin, gach seans nach mbeadh Gaeilge agam. Táim an-sásta gur cuirtear chuig an Ghaelscoil sin mé, Gaelscoil Mhichíl Ciosóg in Inis, Contae an Chláir. Is dóigh liom nuair a smaoiním ar an gcaoi go gcuirtear gasúr go Gaelscoil, go bhfuil sé cosúil le croí beag eile a chur ag preabadh ionat agus bíonn sé ag preabadh ionat i gcónaí. Tá mo chuid pháistí i nGaelscoil anois iad féin. Tá árdmheas agam ar an gcóras sin.”

Ag breathnú siar ar a saol agus ar a cuid ama caite aici sa Ghaeloideachas, ceapann Ní Ghríofa gur chuir an turas isteach go Inis gach lá ar bhealach na scríbhneoireachta í. “Ní raibh aithne ceart agam ar na páistí eile sa bhaile. Is cinéal áit iargúlta faoin tuath i gContae an Chláir í agus bhí mé ag freastail ar Ghaelscoil in Inis a bhí 15 nóiméad uainn,” deir sí.

“D’fhág sin nár chuir me aithne ar na páistí a bhí thart timpeall orainn agus bhí sé sin cinéal uaigneach ar shlí. Cé go raibh mé ag dul i ngleic leis an teanga, bhí uaigneas i gceist freisin agus nuair a bhí mé níos óige, shíl mé gur droch rud a bhí ann ach anois ag breathnú siar, déarfainn gur rud maith é agus nach mbéinn i mo scríbhneoir murach an téispéireas sin.”

Ag éisteacht léi, tá sé soléir nach nathródh sí aon rud faoin uaigneas sin dá mbeadh seans aici agus go dtuigeann sí gur thug an t-uaigneas féirín di atá de dhith ag gach scríbhneoir, an súil a fhaigheann tú nuair a bhraithníonn tú taobh amuigh d’imeachtaí.

“Is dóigh liom go mbíonn saol mar sin ag gach duine a dhéanann an cinneadh a

bheith ina scríbhneoir, go mothaíonn siad as áit, ar an dtaobh amuigh agus go mbíonn sé sin i gceist le nach mór gach scríbhneoir. Níl sé compórdach nuair a mhothaíonn tú féin go bhfuil tú ar an dtaobh amuigh. Tugann sé cinéal lionsa ar leith duit le breathnú ar an saol. Ní mhothaíonn tú go bhfuil tú istigh insan saol. Tá coiscéim tógtha siar agat agus tá tú taobh amuigh de,” deir sí.

Tá A Ghost in the Throat bainte leis an gcaidreamh atá ag Ní Ghríofa le “Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire”, an caoineadh cálúil a scríobh Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill insan 18ú aois tar éis dúnmharú a fear chéile, Art Ó Laoghaire.

Leanann leabhar Ní Ghríofa agus í i mbun aire a thabhairt do thriúr páistí, ag iompar an cheathrú páiste agus ag iarraidh a haistriúchán féin a dhéanamh ar an gcaoineadh. Chuir sí béim ar na mothúcháin atá fíor beo insan leagan Gaeilge, ar shaol Eibhlín Dubh mar bhean agus ar an téacs mar théacs baininscineach.

“Tá an-spéis agam insan caoineadh mar fhoirm liteartha agus tá an t-ádh linn go bhfuil an oiread taighde déanta air,” a deir Ní Ghríofa. “Ní scoláire mise agus táim ag foghlaim faoi an t-am ar fad. Seans iontach a bhí insan leabhar seo le diriú isteach ar an bhfoirm liteartha sin agus tuilleadh eolais a fhoghlaim faoi. Bhain mé an-sult as sin, ag breathnú go cúramach, ag déanamh dianscagadh ar an bhfoirm, go háirithe de bhrí go raibh sé mar fhoirm bhaineann don oiread ama sin. Táim fós ag foghlaim mar gheall ar an gcaoineadh. “Ó thaobh ‘Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire’, sin an caoineadh ina raibh spéis mhór agam agus ón méid a chuaigh mé i ngleic leis an dán, is mo chuid suime insan file a

chum é a bhí ag fás. Bhíos á léamh arís is arís eile agus ag éirí níos fiosraí an t-am go léir mar gheall ar an mbean, ar an nguth agus ar an gcorp a bhí taobh thiar de agus an saol as a d’eascraigh ‘Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire’. Domsa, b’ón gcaoineadh a thosaigh an leabhar seo agus an fiosacht faoi Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill agus an saol a chaith sí roimh di an caoineadh a chumadh agus i ndiaidh di é a chumadh.”

Tá an caoineadh aistrithe arís is arís eile ag scríbhenoirí comh cáilúil le Thomas Kinsella agus Frank O’Connor, ach mhothaigh Ní Ghríofa nach bhfuil an taistriúchán ceart déanta ag éinne go fóil.

Shíl sí nach raibh “beocht an gutha ag teacht tríd” sna haistriúcháin, ach sa deireadh, ní raibh sí iomlán sásta lena haistriúchán féin ach an oiread agus baineann an leabhar leis an bpróiséas sin agus an taighde a dhein sí ar Eibhlín Dubh.

“Is dócha go raibh dóchas ionam go bhféadfainn a guth a iompar samhall go Béarla ach nuair a shroich mé deireadh an phróiséis sin, bhí sé soléir nach raibh sé sin déanta agam. Bhí mé tar éis mo dhíchill a dhéanamh gan dabht agus bhí an t-uafás foghlaimthe agam mar gheall ar Eibhlín Dubh agus an caoineadh tríd dianstáidéár a dhéanamh ar an dán chun é a aistriú. Ba cheacht an-maith a bhí ann comh maith; n’fheadar an dtig linn Béarla a chur ar ghuth Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill leis an dílseacht a bhí ag teastail uaimse.”

Tháinig Ní Ghríofa ar an gcaoineadh don chéad uair nuair a bhí sí á fhoghlaim ar scoil. Leis na hargóintí a bhfeictear faoin gcóras Ghaeloideachais agus na téacsanna a dhéantar stáidéar orthu, cuirim an cheist uirthi ar fhoghlaim sí aon

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“Táim an-sásta gur chuirtear chuig an Gaelscoil sin mé, Gaelscoil Mhichíl Ciosóg in Inis, contae an Chláir. Is dóigh liom nuair a smaoinaím ar an chaoi go chuirtear gasúr go Gaelscoil, go bhfuil sé cosúil le croí beag eile a chur á phreabadh ionat agus bíonn sé ag preabadh ionat i gcónaí.” rud faoin difríocht idir dhearcadh pháiste ar scoil ar litríocht agus dearcadh an duine fásta. “Is dóigh liom go bhfuil sé mar cheart againn súil chriticúil a chaitheamh ar litríocht na Gaeilge comh maith leis an litríocht Bhéarla. Tá sé i gceart dúinn a rá go raibh scéal nó dán a rinneamar ar scoil thar a bheith leadránach agus nach gcuirfeadh sé sin isteach ar pholaitíocht na teangan,” deir sí.

“Domsa, nuair a rinne mé staidéar ar an gcaoineadh ar scoil, níor thuig mé é, go háirithe sa bhunscoil. Ansin, sa dara leibhéal, ní raibh mé ach in ann an scéal grá ann a fheiceáil. Is spéis liom an chaoi nuair a fhileann tú ar litríocht mar sin arís is arís le linn saoil a chaithemah go lonraíonn solas éagsúl gach uair a fhilltear air. Mhothaigh mé é sin ag filleadh ar ‘Chaoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire’ agus mé i mo dhuine fásta. Is dócha go raibh mé feargach i slí le Doireann Ní Ghríofa in aois deich mbliana d’aois a bhí comh braon de, nár thug cluas ceart don dán seo. Bhí mé cinéal crosta liom féin nár thuig mé cé chomh tábhachtach a bheadh an dán.”

Switching to English, Ní Ghríofa begins to describe the process by which A Ghost in the Throat came to be published by Tramp Press, the much-feted Irish independent publisher known for its successes with authors such as Sara Baume and Mike McCormack, by way of the literary journal The Dublin Review.

“The way this book started to grow initially was from a pair of essays that I

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wrote that were published in The Dublin Review, a spectacular literary journal edited and published by Brendan Barrington,” she says.

“Both of those essays are in the book in slightly adapted form, one of them addressed my experiences of returning to a room over and over again in which I dissected a human body as a teenager [and medical student] and the second essay detailed my experience of donating milk to the Human Milk Bank and the birth of my last child. Social media can be brilliant for that kind of thing because people can give you immediate feedback.

I very much looked up to Tramp Press throughout my writing career and reading career if you can call it that because I would be such a bookworm and have loved their books so much. The fact that you might spend months toiling over an essay and get a message from [Tramp Press co-founders] Sara Davis-Goff or Lisa Coen online to say they had read and enjoyed it, that kind of thing was very heartening for me.

“It’s very difficult to embark on writing in a different genre and I can’t overestimate that to tell you the truth. Learning to write prose was really difficult, so those little moments can really lift your spirits and encourage you. When it came to a point where those essays were starting to feel like they were working towards a book, Tramp Press were at the top of my list of who I hoped might publish it. I was really nervous about that process, so I sent the book into their slush pile. I did have a

literary agent but didn’t go down that path with this. Within a fairly short amount of time they got back to me and asked for a meeting and said that they wanted to publish it and I was thrilled. I am very aware, as a reader, of how little they publish; I think it’s only three books a year so you could be a great writer who has written a great book but they could just feel that they don’t have space for it on their tiny roster. I felt extremely lucky and happy that they decided to go with this book, particularly because it’s unusual in terms of genre and the ground it’s exploring, but Tramp Press aren’t afraid of unusual books and I don’t think readers are afraid of unusual books either.”

A Ghost in the Throat makes mention of the financial support that Ní Ghríofa has received throughout her career in the form of literary prizes. Coupled with the bursaries both she and those who publish her receive from the Arts Council, Ní Ghríofa explains just how important such backing was to someone exploring a new form for the first time. “It’s extremely important, not only because of individual arts funding through prizes and bursaries, but also the funding involved for the various steps I took along the way, for example the funding that The Dublin Review and Tramp Press receive,” she says.

“Very often, for me, that was that I needed some childcare. I had four children under six and if I could even get an hour a day, I was able to make

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progress. These were always small sums but because I had no other source of personal income for myself, receiving those small sums felt very much like a thumbs up, which was really encouraging at a creative level, but also at a practical level because it would allow me to have a babysitter for an hour and go upstairs, still able to hear the kids, but really applying myself to the work. It’s not glamorous to talk about at this level, but the funding that the Arts Council gives writers, artists and other practitioners of the arts, literally enables that level of time spent in studios working on canvases that I’ve never attempted before. It enables a life in the arts, which is really not easy to manage, but having that financial support can make things a little easier. I just wish there was more of it, that there was more investment at every stage of artistic development, in the early years, the middle years and as people are established artists.”

Not only was Ní Ghríofa embarking upon a new form, but she was also embarking upon a new world of scholarship and historical research in her book, tackling it in an unconventional way, freed from the confines of academic study as A Ghost in the Throat took on the personal narrative of the writer exploring a poem that had meant so much to her.

“Because I had no training or resources behind me, I really felt that I needed to teach myself as I was going along and that meant that it was a little haphazard at times but that I was learning so much at every turn,” she recalls. “I’m the type

of person who’s very grateful for any opportunities like that to learn and to fling myself into a new investigation. It was very difficult and I learned as I went along, the project that I’m embarking on now is similarly difficult and I’m relieved that since the start of Coronavirus, JSTOR have opened their archives, allowing something like 100 free articles, which is such a boon for someone like me. It’s like handing someone outside of the academy a skeleton key and saying do what you will. For someone like me, that’s such a gift. If I’m handed a key like that, I will absolutely make the most of it.”

A Ghost in the Throat recalls Ní Ghríofa’s experiences through the process of her research and writing, which also included raising four young children and writing multiple volumes of award-winning poetry in both English and Irish.

Concluding, she laughs when asked just how it was she managed all of these things at the same time: “I often ask myself the same question. I think that I was very fortunate. I only started to become a writer in my late 20s, so I really came to this whole process as an adult who had already established a career as a primary school teacher and I was very happy in that role. When I came to writing, I came to it with surprise and astonishment because it wasn’t the path I imagined myself embarking on. I also came to it with the same attitude that I suppose has driven me through my life since I was in primary school; I have a tendency to really focus, probably to an unhealthy level, on something. The book

is not the story of rigorous scholarship, it’s the story of someone becoming dangerously and bizarrely obsessed with another woman’s life. It’s not necessarily always a positive force in my life, but for better or worse that’s who I am.

“That’s the way I always am. It’s not a boast at all because there are many downsides to being like that, having such a narrow vision to what you want to achieve and going for it no matter what means that you’re ignoring a lot of wider things in life but I suppose that’s just the way that I went. I became really intent on teaching myself how to write a poem, then teaching myself how to write a book of poems and then finding a publisher and going gung ho into it and building this life as someone who has part of their very busy days devoted to art and literature. As highfalutin as that sounds, that is what I wanted and that’s still every day what I’m trying to do. That is a daily practice, for all of us, that sense of trying to make space, there were many points in my life where I would have 10 minutes before falling asleep. The life of a poet is not really as fancy as it sounds, it really is just that level of compulsion, determination and return. Going back and back and back, over and over again.

So much of it is mysterious, I feel like I don’t really know when I talk about it.

This is just what I’ve figured out so far.

That’s part of what keeps me coming back to it, the fact that it never stops being interesting because it’s always weird and different. There’s always something new to learn.”

“The book is not the story of rigorous scholarship, it’s the story of someone becoming dangerously and bizarrely obsessed with another woman’s life. It’s not necessarily always a positive force in my life, but for better or worse that’s who I am.” eolas people

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In pursuit of its goal of building a consensus around a shared future on the island of Ireland, the Government has established a Shared Island Unit. eolas examines the multi-stranded approach of the Shared Island initiative.

The creation of the Shared Island Unit (SIU) within the Department of the Taoiseach was announced in the Programme for Government document agreed by the tri-party coalition Government. Speaking with eolas Magazine in August 2020, An Taoiseach Micheál Martin indicated that the new unit would “really drive how we live together on this island” and facilitate “a conversation about how we share the island in a post-Brexit environment, into the future”.

Officially, the unit receives overall political direction from the Taoiseach and is staffed by the Civil Service. Beginning its work in September 2020, the unit operates alongside the ongoing work being pursued across government in relation to the North, which includes the efforts of the Department of Foreign Affairs, the North-South Ministerial Council, the British-Irish Council and the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference.

Based in Dublin Castle, the SIU is intended to examine “the political, social, economic and cultural considerations underpinning a future in which all

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traditions are mutually respected”.

Headed by Aingeal O’Donoghue as Assistant Secretary (seconded from the Department of Foreign Affairs), the division’s two principal officers are George Burke and Eoghan Duffy. In total, the unit now has two additional staff members and “plans are well advanced” to fill an additional “two or three” posts.

A native of county Cork, O’Donoghue is a senior civil servant with extensive foreign affairs experience which includes working on north/south cooperation from 2003 to 2008. In 2013, she became Ireland’s first female Ambassador to the Republic of Korea and latterly was Director General of the European Union Division within the Department of Foreign Affairs and sat on the Department’s management board.

O’Donoghue now has responsibility at Assistant Secretary level for the Shared Island Unit and the broader Britain and Northern Ireland division within the Department of the Taoiseach.

The Britain and Northern Ireland Division is responsible for supporting the work of the Taoiseach and the Government in “helping to maintain peace and develop new relationships on the island of Ireland

and between Britain and Ireland”. The division is tasked with managing all aspects of British-Irish relations, particularly in the context of Brexit, alongside relationships with the UK’s devolved administrations and supporting the work of Cabinet Committee C (Brexit, Foreign and European Affairs) to this end.

The division also supports the Government as a co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement and its institutions. In particular, this incorporates the Taoiseach’s participation in the North South Ministerial Council and the British Irish Council as key institutions of the Good Friday Agreement.

Joint Oireachtas Committee appearance Appearing before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement in November 2020, O’Donoghue and Duffy briefed TDs, senators and MPs from the North on the new unit.

Opening her contribution, O’Donoghue highlighted the Taoiseach’s assertion that the shared island agenda is a “whole-ofgovernment priority” and emphasised

Credit: Merrion Street

Shared Island Unit

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that “the Shared Island Unit of the Department of the Taoiseach does a significant amount of work coordinating and driving this work and agenda”.

Following a line of questioning posed by Sinn Féin representatives attending the committee session, O’Donoghue stated: “Everyone should take it as read that all projects listed in the New Decade, New Approach, commitments from the Irish Government and all the projects listed in the Programme for Government are part of our agenda.”

Delivering on established commitments is the first priority for the SIU and as such, the unit is engaged in “an extensive listening and learning exercise, reaching out to a variety of organisations”.

However, one new project that is under development is an all-island research hub which “would involve creating a context, a structure and ways for researchers in academia and industry on this island to collaborate”. It is envisaged that potential stakeholders might include Science Foundation Ireland and Universities Ireland.

Likewise, O’Donoghue has identified education as a key priority for the unit.

“We are working with both the Department of Education and the new Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science,” she noted.

On unionist engagement, the Assistant Secretary observed: “We have engaged with a variety of people. This is a twoway street. We look forward and hope we can create a space where everyone will feel comfortable engaging with us.

“We have had quite a bit of engagement with civic unionism and, although I do not want to put words into people’s mouths, a level of response that we have found heartening.”

Overall, she noted, the SIU “is about reenergising the agenda on the island in terms of all-island cooperation and a very deliberate, careful approach to developing and fostering inclusive dialogue”.

Approach Addressing over 800 invited guests at an online event broadcast from Dublin Castle on 22 October 2020, the

Aingeal O’Donoghue (main) with Eoghan Duffy (inset left) and George Burke (inset right).

“[It] is about re-energising the agenda on the island in terms of all-island cooperation and a very deliberate, careful approach to developing and fostering inclusive dialogue.”

Aingeal O’Donoghue, Assistant Secretary, Shared Island Unit Taoiseach outlined the Government’s approach to the Shared Island initiative.

“The Shared island agenda is a priority for the entire Government and the Shared Island unit in my Department will be a driver for this work,” Martin stated.

Central to his government’s approach is a commitment to building a “truly shared future”, a consolidation of efforts to build relationships and trust between traditions on the island and tangible progress on reconciliation.

As such, the focus of the SIU as a driver of the Shared Island initiative is threepronged:

Island Dialogue series on 22 October 2020 which will focus on key sectoral issues and inclusive engagement on the Good Friday Agreement while seeking a broad range of perspectives and experiences.

3. Building a shared Ireland agenda (including through the delivery of Programme for Government commitments): • the €500 million Shared Island Fund will provide multiannual capital funding for north/south projects while also supporting allisland collaborative initiatives.

1. Commissioning research: • a research partnership with the ESRI is being finalised; • the National Economic and Social Council has been asked to prepare “a comprehensive report on shared island issues in 2021”; and • there will be north/south and east/west elements to this research.

2. Fostering dialogue: • the Taoiseach launched the Shared

Shared Island Dialogues Organised by the Shared Island Unit, the Shared Island Dialogue series was launched the Taoiseach in October 2020 and is one component of the Government’s Shared Island Initiative aimed at fostering “constructive and inclusive civic dialogue on all aspects of a shared future on the island”. The overarching objectives of the initiative include strengthening socioeconomic and political links and promoting all-island

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solutions to strategic challenges facing the island as a whole.

Speaking during the Joint Oireachtas Committee appearance, SIU Principal Officer Eoghan Duffy revealed: “We envisaged that some of the dialogue work would bring people together online.

We hope to capture some of those exchanges and conversations and make them publicly available to support a broader dialogue… The conclusions and themes coming from these dialogues will be very important to us in the unit in terms of how we shape the work and make it publicly available.”

Shared Island Fund As part of Budget 2021, the Government announced a €500 million Shared Island Fund which will be made available over the next five years up to 2025. The multiannual capital funding will be “ringfenced for Shared Island projects” and will be disbursed via a governance arrangement between the departments of the Taoiseach, Foreign Affairs and Public Expenditure and Reform “in line with Programme for Government priorities”.

Budget 2021 outlined that €50 million of this funding will be allocated for 2021.

The Taoiseach indicated that his government was providing the resources to “deliver on our commitment to build a shared island underpinned by the Good Friday Agreement”.

“The Shared Island Fund will foster new investment and development opportunities on a north/south basis and support the delivery of key cross-border infrastructure initiatives set out in the Programme for Government.

“It also opens the way for investing in new all-island initiatives in areas such as research, health, education and the environment, addressing the particular challenges of the north-west and border communities, achieving greater connectivity on the island and enhancing the all-island economy and all aspects of

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Credit: Merrion Street

In late November 2020, Taoiseach Micheál Martin opened the first Shared Island Dialogue seeking the views of young people on the future of the Ireland.

Over 80 young people from across the island contributed to the online event titled ‘New generations and new voices on the Good Friday Agreement’.

“The shared island agenda is a priority for the entire Government and the Shared Island unit in my Department will be a driver for this work.”

An Taoiseach, Micheál Martin TD north/south cooperation,” he said.

SDLP deputy leader Nichola Mallon MLA, the North’s Infrastructure Minister, welcomed the Taoiseach’s commitment to work in partnership with the Northern Executive to deliver key cross-border infrastructure projects which include the Narrow Water Bridge (between counties Louth and Down), the A5 (an extension of the N2 between Dublin and Derry), the Ulster Canal (from Fermanagh to Armagh via Monaghan), the Sligo-Enniskillen greenway (subject to findings of a feasibility study) and the suggested high speed rail link between Cork and Belfast via Dublin (work is ongoing to examine the feasibility of extending the link to Derry).

“I welcome the shared vision, shared determination and shared commitment of An Taoiseach and the Irish Government to delivering a new shared island, better connected and better served by all-island infrastructure,” Mallon stated.

Unionist response However, the inclusive overtures made by the Government have been roundly rejected by unionism. In October 2020,

Alistair Bushe, editor of the News Letter, the North’s most unambiguously unionist daily newspaper, wrote “[Micheál] Martin is battling republicans within his own party, as well as Sinn Féin. The Shared Island Unit is part of a bid to undercut Sinn Féin. That might be logical, and even admirable. All the same, unionists should have nothing to do with it”.

Similarly, Ulster Unionist Party leader Steve Aiken MLA stated: “No unionist sees any merit in the Shared Island Unit, and we’ve told the Taoiseach that directly.” Suggesting that the unit is “an extra unnecessary layer of bureaucracy for what is political expediency”, Aiken advocates instead for a Shared Islands Unit to repair and enhance relations between Britain and Ireland.

Meanwhile, speaking with the News Letter, the DUP’s leader in the British House of Commons, Jeffrey Donaldson MP stated: “We’re certainly not opposed to cooperation, where that’s to mutual benefit. But we are clear there is a difference between cooperation and interference and it’s important those lines are very clearly laid in terms of any of the kind of projects the Taoiseach has mentioned.”

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The future of Irish media The Commission is due to report to the Taoiseach and the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Catherine Martin TD, in August 2021. The membership of the Commission was originally criticised by the NUJ for its lack of trade union representation and by Newsbrands Ireland over the absence of “individual with direct experience of the Irish news publishing industry”. The later appointment of Holliman sought to rectify these issues.

The original announcement of the Commission was also criticised by the NUJ for being “long on jargon, short on specific action points and notable for a complete disregard for the consequences for workers within a sector in crisis”.

The Government’s Future of Media Commission held its inaugural meeting on 29 October. Its remit is to examine sustainable funding measures that ensure both public service aims and editorial independence.

The fully stated remit of the Commission is to “examine how public service aims can be delivered and sustainably funded through the broadcasting, print and online media in Ireland over the next 10 years, while ensuring that independent editorial oversight is maintained and Ireland’s creative and cultural sectors are supported”.

Chaired by the former president of Dublin City University, Brian MacCraith, the Commission is comprised of: Sinéad Burke, director of Tilting the Lens and member of the Council of State; Alan Rusbridger, chair of the Steering Committee of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University;

and former Editor-in-Chief of Guardian News and Media; Lynette Fay, bilingual freelance broadcaster known for her work with BBC Radio Ulster; Nuala O’Connor, filmmaker; Gillian Doyle, Professor of Media Economics, University of Glasgow; Mark Little, CEO and co-founder of Kinzer, co-founder of Storyful; Stephen McNamara, Director of Communications, Irish Rugby Football Union; Finola DoyleO’Neill, broadcast historian, University College Cork; and Siobhán Holliman, deputy editor of the Tuam Herald, member of the Press Council and joint Cathaoirleach of the Irish Executive Council of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ).

Speaking in November, MacCraith pledged “extensive engagement with stakeholder groups” from the Commission. He said that the Commission is currently discussing formats and timetables that will include “a range of consultation opportunities”, which will include a public call for submissions. MacCraith also added that the Government was “satisfied with the range of expertise on the Commission” and the that the Commission will not “stretch way out into the future” but rather complete its work within its allotted nine-month term. As the Commission queries avenues of funding for Irish media, one possibility is the idea of international media companies being required to contribute to the funding of Irish content if they take revenues from the Irish market, which Minister Martin mentioned as a possibility in a remote address to Screen Producers Ireland.

Speaking on the occasion of the Commission’s inaugural meeting, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said: “A sustainable, independent and objective media landscape plays a critical role in the functioning of democracy and it is important for us to examine how it can be funded into the future. I look forward to receiving the Commission’s recommendations next year.”

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Unaffordable: The cost of partition A united Ireland could cost as little as one per cent of the Republic’s annual economic output, a new policy paper by Sinn Féin suggests.

While there are many facets to the discourse on Irish unity, one consistent theme is that of the cost. Those opposed to or indeed indifferent to reunification tend to look at the cost that would be incurred, with many fixated on one figure: £10 billion, one rough estimate of the annual subvention required by the North’s economy from the UK Exchequer. United Irelanders focus instead on the potential benefits of an all-island economic approach, which they contend would outweigh any cost.

Consensus on the subvention cost does not exist and its absence remains a stumbling block for those looking to enhance the discussion on the economic benefits reunification could bring across the island of Ireland.

As the economic impact of Covid-19, coupled with economic detriments of Brexit transpire, the conversation on the viability of a reunification has intensified.

Recognising this, Sinn Féin’s November 2020 policy paper, Economic Benefits of a United Ireland, claims to challenge the

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“existing narrative” that the State cannot afford the North and that a united Ireland is not economically viable.

Analysis of the subvention required by the North, or the spending gap currently plugged by the British Government that would hypothetically need to be absorbed by the Irish Government, produces an interesting alternative figure. In 2018-19, expenditure in the North, incorporating spending on services and of accounting adjustments, was £27.888 billion. Revenue raised totalled £18.5 billion. This leaves a deficit, therefore, of between £9 billion and £10 billion.

However, Sinn Féin argues that this figure is an inaccurate reflection of the true cost and does not distinguish between spending on services within Northern Ireland (identifiable spending) and those British spending priorities for which costs are passed to Northern Ireland (non-identifiable spending) such as funding defence, paying down national debt or overseas commitments.

Removing non-identifiable spending (£2.1 billion in 2018-19) would reduce the

subvention figure to £6 billion.

Again, this could be reduced further when it is considered that £3.5 billion is spent on pensions, an expenditure that should not have to be incurred by the Irish State because pension rights have already been accrued under national insurance contributions. “The ultimate subvention figure will be determined by the outcome of negotiations. This figure will range from between £2.5 billion to £6 billion,” the document states.

For context, the analysis highlights that this figure equates to between just 1.3 per cent and 3 per cent of output of the Irish economy in 2019 (€213.7 billion GNI* in 2019).

Sinn Féin argues that cost alone should not be the only determining factor when considering reunification and emphasises the potential economic benefit of an allisland approach. Partition, the party states, has left the North with the slowest growing economy on these islands. For instance, around 20 per cent of its workers earn less than a basic living wage.

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“It is recognised that having decisions taken in Westminster has been to the economic detriment of the North… The OECD categorised the North as essentially ‘peripheral with respect to its political influence’ on Westminster for innovationrelated policies,” the document states, pointing to the benefit of an united Ireland allowing for the development of a “bespoke localised macroeconomic strategy”.

Republic of Ireland GNI* in 2019: €213.7 Assumed subvention:

billion

£10 billion = 5.2% of GNI*

unspecified spending: £6 billion = 3% of GNI* pension liability:

£2.5 billion = 1.3% of GNI*

The border The region which stands to significantly benefit most from reunification are the border counties, according to the analysis, which asserts: “Since partition the border corridor has effectively been consigned to periphery status limiting the economic potential of a significant section of our island and therefore of the whole island economy.”

Productivity in the southern part of the border region is stunted at 54 per cent of the island average and just 61 per cent of high-income European economies. “It is a region that should be heavily integrated and coordinated for its largest economic sectors… However, it is divided by two different currencies and two states competing for investment and economic activity,” the report says.

“Partition has trapped the border region in a vicious cycle… Reunification would allow for more coordinated and strategic economic development across the island and especially within the border region, attracting more investment, improved productivity, and with it enhanced essential infrastructure.”

The EU Underpinning its analysis of the economic detriments of Brexit, Sinn Féin emphasises the EU’s assurance in April 2017 that in the event of reunification, the North would automatically re-enter the European Union.

Highlighting economic projections of severe long-term reductions in the output of the Irish economy in the decade after a hard Brexit of between 2.3 and 7 per cent, the party adds that analysis of the current trading relationships between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, in all circumstances, will be impacted by increased non-tariff barriers and increased administration burdens.

The analysis recognises the Irish protocol’s

role in mitigating the threat of severe disruption on cross-border trade, important when considering that some £4.2 billion was exported by businesses in the North to the Republic.

Acknowledging that the impact on trade between the North and Great Britain remains unclear, the discussion paper seeks to dispel the assertion that Britain is the North’s most valuable trading partner, arguing that this is based solely on the value of trade being higher. This, Sinn Féin suggests, overlooks the fact that more business trade flows from the North to the Republic rather than from the North to Great Britain. It also fails to consider the role of north/south supply chains and intermediary trades prior to any sale from the North to Great Britain.

“The assertion that trading between the North and Britain would be negatively impacted or that the North has more to lose in terms of trading with Britain in the context of Irish unity is debateable and can be rebutted in numerous ways,” it states.

The paper emphasises the threats of Brexit, including customs costs and barriers on the North’s exports to Great Britain and evidence that, even in advance of tariffs, northern businesses are becoming less reliant on trade with Great Britain (NISRA figures show a 9.3 per cent decrease in 2018).

EU programmes and institutions, while enabling further all-Ireland integration.”

Energy One area in which the discussion document is less authoritative is on the potential of “the green economy”. In the absence of concrete figures on potential economic benefits, it opts instead to explore Ireland’s underperformance in developing a green economy to date and points to “untapped avenues”.

Noticeably, it omits reference to Ireland’s Single Electricity Market (SEM) as an example of where all-island integrated energy policy has proven to be beneficial and could serve as a template for wider green initiatives. However, the document does recognise the unique challenges facing the North’s climate action objectives in the absence of fiscal levers.

“Irish unity is the route through which economic benefits of the necessary transition including green jobs and greater security of energy supply can best be realised. The benefits from economies of scale and all-island spatial planning apply equally to the green economy,” Sinn Féin states.

Evidence of this, it suggests, is that in 2018, for the first time since records began, the North exported more goods to other countries (£11.2 billion) than to Britain (£10.6 billion).

“Partition means that the benefits of a transition to a zero-carbon economy will be dampened significantly, as both parts of the island compete against each other for private renewables investment while operating two incoherent and potentially conflicting green economic agendas.”

Summarising, it states: “Reversing the negative effects of Brexit is an economic necessity. Irish unity would allow the North to enjoy full benefits of EU membership including access to the European market and to substantial funding, and the investment opportunities offered through

In concluding, Sinn Féin says that the document is intended to advance the economic case that the entire island of Ireland will benefit economically from unity.

“It is not a question about whether we can afford Irish unity, the fact is that we cannot afford partition.”

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Loughinisland journalist settlement (L to R): Trevor Birney; Barry McCaffrey; and prominient Belfast human rights lawyer Niall Murphy.

Two journalists arrested by the PSNI over the alleged theft of a Police Ombudsman document that subsequently appeared in the No Stone Unturned documentary focusing on British security force collusion in the Loughinisland massacre have subsequently been awarded damages in a High Court judicial review in Belfast.

On 19 June 1994, during the USA ’94 World Cup game between Ireland and Italy, UVF gunmen entered the tiny lounge of The Heights Bar in Loughinisland, County Down and opened fire, killing six local men and injuring five more. No one has ever been convicted for the killings.

No Stone Unturned explored in forensic detail the failings of the British security force investigation into the 1994 attack and allegations of collusion. The Emmy Award nominated documentary was released in Irish cinemas on 10 November 2017.

Then, on 31 August 2018, producer Trevor Birney and journalist Barry McCaffrey were arrested by the PSNI as

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part of Operation Yurta, an investigation into the alleged theft of confidential Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland (PONI) material. Led by detectives from Durham Constabulary, supported by PSNI personnel, the two men’s homes and the office of Fine Point Films production company were raided with documents and computer equipment seized.

The journalists were then subjected to 14 hours of questioning in connection with suspected theft of documents, handling of stolen goods, Section 5 of the Official Secrets Act 1989 and data protection breaches. While being questioned, the journalists were informed that PONI had

reported the theft of two confidential documents to the PSNI on 4 October 2017. However, on 8 November 2018, the Police Ombudsman Michael Maguire told the Irish Times: “We did not make a complaint of theft.”

The leaked material, which appeared in No Stone Unturned, was delivered to the journalists anonymously via a plain envelope in the post with no return address.

Ex parte warrants Under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, it is customary practice that journalists are issued with a production

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order which can then be challenged in an open court. Instead, on 10 August 2018, ex parte warrants to search the homes of the two journalists as well as the Fine Point Films office were authorised.

The rationale cited for this decision was informed by McCaffrey’s refusal, as per the NUJ’s ethics code, to reveal a source to Metropolitan Police Service at the request of the PSNI in June 2012.

Legal challenge However, on 7 September 2018 legal representatives for the journalists challenged the legality of search warrants at the High Court in Belfast. On 4 February 2019, Birney and McCaffrey secured permission to challenge the legality of the search warrants.

On 31 May 2019, the warrants for the arrest of the two journalists were subsequently quashed by the High Court in Belfast. Later, on 10 July 2020, the 19page written judgement relating to that decision was published. The judgement indicated that there was “no confidence that the trial judge applied the right test” when authorising the ex parte procedure.

Referring to efforts to “take all steps to try to protect the identity of the source”, the judgement stated: “There is nothing suspicious or inappropriate about this. It is exactly what one would expect a careful, professional investigative journalist to do in anticipation of any attempt to identify a source.”

Concluding, the judgement asserted: “The conduct of this hearing fell woefully short of the standard required to ensure that the hearing was fair. That was sufficient for our [Morgan, Treacy and Keegan] decision to quash the warrant…

We see no overriding requirement in the public interest which could have justified an interference with the protection of journalistic sources in this case.”

On 16 July 2020, PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne issued a statement outlining that he had “written to both Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney offering them an unreserved apology for the distress and upset caused to them and their families”, adding, “I fully accept the ruling of the Lord Chief Justice that the search warrants were unlawful”.

(Top L to R) Adrian Rogan, Barney Green and Dan McCreanor, (Bottom L to R) Eamon Byrne, Malcolm Jenkinson and Patsy O'Hare.

“What we do know is that the Loughinisland families will wake up tomorrow morning not one inch closer to knowing why the PSNI still refuses to bring the perpetrators of the massacre to justice.”

Barry McCaffrey Damages On 26 November 2020, the two-year judicial review culminated with the PSNI agreeing to award damages to each of the journalists and the production company behind the documentary. In total, the PSNI will pay £875,000 of damages split between Fine Point Films (£600,000), Birney (£150,000) and McCaffrey (£125,000). The settlement also included agreement on behalf of the PSNI to destroy all forensic samples linked to the case including photographs, fingerprints and DNA. Furthermore, Durham Constabulary and the PSNI agreed to delete all original copies, downloads and extracts of the material they took from the journalists.

In reaction to the settlement, Birney stated: “We launched a Judicial Review in the face of the PSNI’s most egregious attack on journalism to protect our journalism, our sources, and press freedom itself… Over the past two years,

the PSNI fought our attempts to protect our journalism and sources every step of the way. They sought to defend their indefensible attack on press freedom right up until the judgment delivered by the Lord Chief Justice in July this year.”

McCaffrey added: “Millions of pounds of taxpayers money was wasted on our arrests and the PSNI's utterly futile legal challenge to defend their unlawful actions… Sadly, I fear that no one will be held to account. Who knows how much damage this debacle has caused to confidence in policing?

“What we do know is that the Loughinisland families will wake up tomorrow morning not one inch closer to knowing why the PSNI still refuses to bring the perpetrators of the massacre to justice.”

To date, since the release of No Stone Unturned, no one has been arrested by the PSNI in relation to the killings at Loughinisland in 1994.

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JOINT COMMITTEES OF THE 33RD DÁIL AND THE 26TH SEANAD Oireachtas committees comprise members of one or both Houses of the Oireachtas who chosen to consider particular subjects. There are two broad categories of Oireachtas committee: departmental and thematic. Departmental committees scrutinise the work of government departments, legislation and all aspects of policy relating to that department.

Thematic committees consider specific topics, such as the Good Friday Agreement, Brexit or the Irish language.

Joint committees A joint or ‘departmental’ committee comprises a select committee from both the Dáil and the Seanad. On establishment, and at the beginning of each year, joint committees decide on their priority areas allocated time for each over the year ahead.

Each committee then publishes and submits its annual work programme to be laid in the Oireachtas Library.

Joint committees are generally established for the term of Dáil and consider the expenditure, administration and policy of each respective department and associated public bodies.

Between 30 July 2020 and 18 September 2020, the Oireachtas appointed 13 joint departmental committees.

Committee on Agriculture and the Marine Chair: Jackie Cahill, Fianna Fáil

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Deputies:

Brian Leddin, Green Party

Denis O’Donovan, Fianna Fáil

Martin Browne, Sinn Féin

Michael Ring, Fine Gael

Clerk: Josie Briody

Matt Carthy, Sinn Féin

Senators:

Michael Collins, Independent

Lynn Boylan, Sinn Féin

Joe Flaherty, Fianna Fáil

Paul Daly, Fianna Fáil

Paul Kehoe, Fine Gael

Tim Lombard, Fine Gael

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Committee on Children, Disability, Equality and Integration Chair: Kathleen Funchion, Sinn Féin Deputies:

Seán Sherlock, Labour Party

Sharon Keogan, Independent

Patrick Costello, Green Party

Mark Ward, Sinn Féin

Erin McGreehan, Fianna Fáil

Cathal Crowe, Fianna Fáil

Jennifer Whitmore, Social

Lynn Ruane, Independent

Alan Dillon, Fine Gael

Democrats

Mary Seery Kearney, Fine Gael

Joe Flaherty, Fianna Fáil

Senators:

Clerk: Anita Gibbons

John Paul Phelan, Fine Gael

Mary Fitzpatrick, Fianna Fáil

Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Chair: Paul Kehoe, Fine Gael Deputies:

Marc Ó Cathasaigh, Green Party

Eileen Flynn, Independent

Rose Conway-Walsh, Sinn Féin

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire,

Rónán Mullen, Independent

Alan Farrell, Fine Gael

Sinn Féin

Fiona O'Loughlin, Fianna Fáil

Carol Nolan, Independent

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, Labour Party

Pauline O'Reilly, Green Party

Jim O'Callaghan, Fianna Fáil

Senators:

Clerk: Tara Kelly

Pádraig O'Sullivan, Fianna Fáil

Aisling Dolan, Fine Gael

Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment Chair: Maurice Quinlivan, Sinn Féin Deputies:

Louise O'Reilly, Sinn Féin

Ollie Crowe, Fianna Fáil

Richard Bruton, Fine Gael

Matt Shanahan, Independent

Róisín Garvey, Green Party

Francis Noel Duffy, Green Party

Niamh Smyth, Fianna Fáil

Paul Gavan, Sinn Féin

Joe Flaherty, Fianna Fáil

David Stanton, Fine Gael

Marie Sherlock, Labour Party

Paul Murphy, Solidarity/People

Senators:

Clerk: Tom Sheridan

Before Profit

Garret Ahearn, Fine Gael

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach Chair: John McGuinness, Fianna Fáil Deputies:

Steven Matthews, Green Party

Aidan Davitt, Fianna Fáil

Mick Barry, Solidarity/People

Jim O'Callaghan, Fianna Fáil

Alice-Mary Higgins, Independent

Before Profit

Neale Richmond, Fine Gael

Marie Sherlock, Labour Party

Pearse Doherty, Sinn Féin

Peadar Tóibín, Aontú

Clerk: Aileen Fallon

Bernard Durkan, Fine Gael

Senators:

Mairéad Farrell, Sinn Féin

Pat Casey, Fianna Fáil

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JOINT COMMITTEES OF THE 33RD DÁIL AND THE 26TH SEANAD Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence Chair: Charlie Flanagan, Fine Gael Deputies:

James Lawless, Fianna Fáil

Gerard P. Craughwell,

Cathal Berry, Independent

Brian Leddin, Green Party

Independent

John Brady, Sinn Féin

David Stanton, Fine Gael

Joe O'Reilly, Fine Gael

Sorca Clarke, Sinn Féin

Senators:

Diarmuid Wilson, Fianna Fáil

Barry Cowen, Fianna Fáil

Catherine Ardagh, Fianna Fáil

Clerk: Noel Murphy

Committee on Health Chair: Seán Crowe, Sinn Féin Deputies:

Gino Kenny, Solidarity/People

Lorraine Clifford-Lee, Fianna Fáil

Colm Burke, Fine Gael

Before Profit

Martin Conway, Fine Gael

Cathal Crowe, Fianna Fáil

John Lahart, Fianna Fáil

Annie Hoey, Labour Party

David Cullinane, Sinn Féin

Róisín Shortall, Social Democrats

Seán Kyne, Fine Gael

Bernard Durkan, Fine Gael

Senators:

Clerk: Ted McEnery

Neasa Hourigan, Green Party

Frances Black, Independent

Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage Chair: Steven Matthews, Green Party Deputies:

Cian O'Callaghan

John Cummins, Fine Gael

Francis Noel Duffy, Green Party

Social Democrats

Mary Fitzpatrick, Fianna Fáil

Thomas Gould, Sinn Féin

Richard O'Donoghue

Rebecca Moynihan, Labour Party

Emer Higgins, Fine Gael

Independent

Mary Seery Kearney, Fine Gael

Paul McAuliffe, Fianna Fáil

Eoin Ó Broin, Sinn Féin

Clerk: Anne-Marie Lynch

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor,

Senators:

Fianna Fáil

Victor Boyhan, Independent

Committee on Justice Chair: James Lawless, Fianna Fáil

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Deputies:

Brendan Howlin, Labour Party

Vincent P. Martin, Green Party

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill

Martin Kenny, Sinn Féin

Michael McDowell, Independent

Fine Gael

Niamh Smyth, Fianna Fáil

Lynn Ruane, Independent

Patrick Costello, Green Party

Thomas Pringle, Independent

Barry Ward, Fine Gael

Michael Creed, Fine Gael

Senators:

Clerk: Alan Guidon

Pa Daly, Sinn Féin

Robbie Gallagher, Fianna Fáil

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Committee on Media, Tourism, Arts, Culture, Sport and the Gaeltacht Chair: Niamh Smyth, Fianna Fáil Deputies:

Imelda Munster, Sinn Féin

Micheál Carrigy, Fine Gael

Ciarán Cannon, Fine Gael

Johnny Mythen, Sinn Féin

Shane Cassells, Fianna Fáil

Alan Dillon, Fine Gael

Christopher O'Sullivan

Annie Hoey, Labour Party

Peter Fitzpatrick, Independent

Fianna Fáil

Fintan Warfield, Sinn Féin

Brendan Griffin, Fine Gael

Senators:

Clerk: Laura Pathe

Mattie McGrath, Independent

Malcolm Byrne, Fianna Fáil

Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands Chair: Denis Naughten, Independent Deputies:

Charles Flanagan, Fine Gael

Róisín Garvey, Green Party

Jackie Cahill, Fianna Fáil

Claire Kerrane, Sinn Féin

Paul Gavan, Sinn Féin

Joe Carey, Fine Gael

Marc Ó Cathasaigh, Green Party

Eugene Murphy, Fianna Fáil

Joan Collins, Independents 4

Éamon Ó Cuív, Fianna Fáil

Mark Wall, Labour Party

Change

Senators:

Clerk: Paul Kelly

Paul Donnelly, Sinn Féin

Paddy Burke, Fine Gael

Committee on Transport and Communications Networks Chair: Kieran O'Donnell, Fine Gael Deputies:

Darren O'Rourke, Sinn Féin

Rónán Mullen, Independent

Joe Carey, Fine Gael

Duncan Smith, Labour Party

Ned O'Sullivan, Fianna Fáil

Cathal Crowe, Fianna Fáil

Ruairí Ó Murchú, Sinn Féin

Clerk: Pádraig Grant

Michael Lowry, Independent

Senators:

Steven Matthews, Green Party

Jerry Buttimer, Fine Gael

James O'Connor, Fianna Fáil

Timmy Dooley, Fianna Fáil

Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement Chair: Fergus O'Dowd, Fine Gael Deputies:

Brendan Smith, Fianna Fáil

Annie Hoey, Labour Party

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill

Peadar Tóibín, Aontú

John McGahon, Fine Gael

Fine Gael

Senators:

Niall Ó Donnghaile, Sinn Féin

Rose Conway-Walsh, Sinn Féin

Frances Black, Independent

Clerk:

Patrick Costello, Green Party

Niall Blaney, Fianna Fáil

Paul Stephens

James Lawless, Fianna Fáil

Gerard P. Craughwell

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn, Sinn Féin

Independent

Michael McNamara, Independent

Emer Currie, Fine Gael

Source: Oireachtas.ie

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Ireland’s UN Security Council seat: Human rights and democracy in Belarus Ireland must use its forthcoming membership of the United Nations Security Council to spotlight electoral fraud and gross human rights abuse in Belarus. Fianna Fáil TD for Dublin Bay South, Jim O’Callaghan, writes.

The death in a Minsk hospital of Raman Bandarenka from brain damage on 12 November encapsulates the awfulness of the current situation in Belarus.

Bandarenka was a 31-year-old children’s art teacher who was hospitalised after being assaulted by plain-clothed policemen and then detained. His ‘crime’ was to verbally object when the policemen removed ribbons (used as protest symbols) from outside his apartment block. While the Belarussian government has denied responsibility, the EU said this was an “outrageous and shameful result of the actions by the authorities who have not only violently carried out repression of their own population, but also created an environment whereby such lawless, violent acts can take place”.

A recent OSCE report concluded there is overwhelming evidence that the presidential elections of 9 August 2020 in Belarus have been falsified. The report also found that massive and systematic human rights violations have been committed by the security forces in response to peaceful demonstrations.

Aleksander Lukashenko has ruled Belarus since 1994. He was opposed in the election by a 37-year-old former teacher with no previous political experience, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.

She was forced into exile shortly after the election.

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Tsikhanouskaya has strong links with Ireland. She first visited Roscrea, County Tipperary as a teenager through the Chernobyl Lifeline charity and developed a close friendship with her host family.

detained or harassed. Members of the

The regime reacted with great brutality to the mass demonstrations that have taken place every week since the rigged election. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that “the government continues to wield the machinery of the State to commit human rights violations” and estimates that over 25,000 people have been arrested. There are more than 600 documented cases of torture and several protesters have been killed.

college and academics dismissed.

The repression affects every part of society. Doctors who protested at the injuries inflicted on patients they treated were arrested. Union activists have been dismissed from their employment and striking workers arrested. Ireland’s Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, said that charges against Maria Rabkova, coordinator of Viasna Human Rights Centre, “is tantamount to the criminalisation of human rights work”.

Lawyers for those detained have been refused access to their clients and some of them have also been arrested, fined and even disbarred. In the year to date more than 400 journalists have been

artistic community and prominent Olympic athletes have been jailed for participating in demonstrations. Some 127 students have been expelled from

Ireland has a chance to promote democracy in Belarus, through its forthcoming membership of the Security Council. We must promote practical measures to help the democratic opposition. The Taoiseach and the Minister for Foreign Affairs have spoken clearly on this issue.

On 17 August 2020, An Taoiseach said on Twitter, “the people of Belarus deserve to have free, fair elections.

People’s right to protest peacefully must be respected”. The Minister for Foreign Affairs rejected the election results, called for an end to violence and the release of those imprisoned. Ireland has since supported the move to impose targeted sanctions by the EU. Ireland should advocate on the Security Council and within the EU institutions for expanded sanctions against key individuals in the Belarus regime and companies that enable it to flout democracy and perpetrate gross human rights abuses.

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TRADE UNION DESK

Workers have no rights to remote working: This needs fixing Developments in technology and its widespread availability have made it possible for many jobs to be performed outside of the employer’s premises.

However, it took a pandemic to fully awaken us to the potential for remote working. Laura Bambrick, Head of Social Policy and Employment Affairs at the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) writes.

Before Covid-19 struck, just under onein-20 (4.9 per cent) workers worked mainly from home. In policy circles, home working was viewed as one in a suite of flexible working arrangements for attracting and retaining mothers, carers and people with a disability in the workforce.

With the arrival of Covid-19, remote working went mainstream. Over a matter of days, tens of thousands of employers moved their staff to work remotely from home to help slow the spread of the virus. Almost 40 per cent of paid hours worked in the economy were performed from homes across the country during the first lockdown as the number of remote workers skyrocketed to more than one-in-four (27.6 per cent) of those in employment.

The future of work is now For some workers, the experience of working from home has been fraught.

Unsuitable accommodation, poor broadband, longer hours and isolation are among the top issues raised with trade union reps. But, for the vast majority it has been a positive experience and they want to continue remote working after the Covid-19 restrictions end.

In June 2020, in the Programme for Government, the biggest employer in the economy commited to move to 20 per cent home and remote working for public servants by the end of 2021.

Unsurprisingly, working from home became a hot topic for radio and TV programmes and newspaper think pieces, with many predicting the death of the office. This conclusion is not

supported by opinion poll findings and what we are hearing from our members.

The overwhelming preference is for a mix of office-based and remote working post pandemic.

So, while unions view the reports of the death of the office to be greatly exaggerated, we do recognise the potential for remote working to be one of the great disruptors to the workplace, similar to the arrival of the assembly line on to the factory floor and the personal computer into the office.

To be clear, unions are not looking to hold back the tide of progress. There is a huge appetite for remote working among our members. Working from home or remotely from another location, such as a digital hub or co-working space, can really improve workers’ work-life balance, make them happier and more productive. Our concern is only with ensuring workers’ hard-won rights are preserved when working remotely and that protections keep pace with changes in ways of working.

However, as the Irish Congress of Trade Unions has been to the fore in highlighting, under Irish law workers have no rights to remote working. The employer alone decides the place of work.

The power imbalance In Britain, Northern Ireland and across the EU, workers who have completed their probation period have a right to request remote working and their employer is required to give the request serious consideration.

There is no obligation on the employer to agree to the request. Not all jobs can be

completed remotely and the need for flexibility must be balanced with the needs of the business.

Here in Ireland, remote working and other flexible working arrangements such as flexitime, part-time hours, jobshare, etc. are wholly at the employer’s discretion.

Without a requirement to treat requests in a reasonable manner, Irish employers have shown themselves to be too quick to out of hand refuse to negotiate a company policy on remote working with trade union reps.

The remote working genie is out of the bottle A new EU Directive on Work-Life Balance requires government to give carers and parents of young children the right to request remote working by 2022, in line with European workers’ rights. ICTU has called on government to go beyond the minimum requirements of the directive and extend this right to all workers.

The past nine months have been a mass experiment in remote working. Granted, the experiment conditions have been far from textbook. No one would have designed it to be implemented overnight, without time to set-up, and for it to run in parallel with a public health emergency.

Even so, workers and policymakers are now very much alive to its potential.

Government will publish its National Strategy on Remote Working in the coming weeks. Introducing rights to work remotely and stronger protections for remote workers will be key to facilitating a smooth transition in this seismic shift in work practices.

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Political Platform Bríd Smith TD

In February 2020, Bríd Smith was returned to the Dáil to represent Dublin South Central. The People Before Profit TD was first elected in 2016 after serving as a Dublin City Councillor since 2009.

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How did your political career begin?

The question sounds odd to me as I never even thought that I was embarking on a political career. I became an activist in trade unionism at an early age and was elected as a local representative in my job which was then in the public libraries. On my return to Dublin after travelling for a few years, I once again became active in trade unionism when I worked in Dublin Bus. There were many political campaigns that I got stuck into that criss-crossed union activity, most notably the Dunnes Stores Strike Against Apartheid. Later, when I moved to Ballyfermot I got very involved in local community issues, setting up and running many campaigns in this community and, in no time, found myself running for election. I have been in socialist politics all my adult life so People Before Profit was a natural home for me.

What are your most notable achievements to date?

To date I am very proud of the part that I and my party played in the Repeal the Eighth movement and the very positive outcome of same.

Also, we blazed a trail with the Climate Emergency Measures Bill which I put to the Dáil in 2018 but tragically and deliberately it is held up by a money message and a court case challenging the Ceann Comhairle’s ruling to keep this bill from seeing the light of day.

Representing workers’ rights is another point of pride for me and my party and in the Dáil we continue to raise the many issues and injustices that workers face every day. I am passionate about equality issues and am proud of the role I have played and continue to play in advocating for Travellers’ rights, both in the Dáil, before this in Dublin City Council and continually in my community which has the oldest halting site in the country.

What is unique about representing Dublin South Central?

Dublin South Central has one of the largest proportions of people in low socioeconomic status of any constituency in the country.

It is very diverse and has a growing young population. The latter explains why we had a fantastic campaign on the Same Sex Marriage referendum, Repeal the Eighth and a vibrant climate change movement in Dublin South Central. But it also has huge challenges with poverty, exclusion, homelessness, low education standards etc. So, perhaps that helps to explain the dominance of the broader left in the outcome of the elections. We call it the Peoples Republic of DSC.

What are your priorities going forward?

My priorities in the Dáil are to promote a genuine climate change agenda, like banning all fossil fuel exploration, the importation of liquefied natural gas (LNG), for a real just transition for workers and communities, for a green new deal. My other priorities are workers’ rights and pursuing legislation that will be meaningful to workers, like sick pay, decent pensions, ending pay discrimination, the right to trade union recognition and more. My priorities in my community are to promote real and

accessible public services in health, education, housing and transport. My priority for People Before Profit is to make it bigger and better and more proactive in campaigning for real change.

How can the People Before Profit maximise its impact in the lifetime of the 33rd Dáil?

In this Dáil, I think People Before Profit plays an important role in being outspoken and direct on the issues of the day, whether that is the Covid-19 pandemic and how we respond to it or the political appointments of judges. I think we can make serious electoral gains and also earn the respect of our class and communities by using the platform of the Dáil to raise the issues that concern them on a daily basis. And our party is growing rapidly around the country. So, I am very encouraged by this development.

What are your interests outside of the political sphere?

Outside of the political sphere I mostly enjoy hillwalking and swimming and of course I love listening to music and singing myself, and reading and watching good stuff on the box. But if I had the time, I would love to learn bee-keeping, complete another diving course and travel the world before more of it is ruined by our wasteful and destructive economic and political systems.

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”

Meet the

Naomi O’Leary Naomi O’Leary is Europe Correspondent for The Irish Times and creator of The Irish Passport podcast with Tim Mc Inerney. A graduate of Trinity College Dublin and the University of Cambridge, she previously worked as a correspondent with POLITICO Europe.

How did you get into journalism?

As a kid I thought it would be nice to make a career out of writing as it was something I was always good at. I also

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unrealistic, like having an ambition to be a Premier League footballer. It was mysterious to me how anyone became one.

wanted to understand what the hell was

At a crucial moment in college, I

going on in the world. But for a long time

considered giving up any such ambitions

I thought wanting to be a journalist was

and following my dad into dentistry. But

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my best friend encouraged me. He said: “If you became a journalist, I think you'd be a really good one.” He reasoned with me that there was no harm in trying, and that I could also try something else if it didn't work out. I threw myself into pitching to student newspapers, then small digital magazines, and then

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publications that paid, building up experience and a portfolio. I started applying for internships. As soon as I got the opportunity to work alongside journalists, I realised that if they could do it, so could I. The friend who encouraged me was Tim Mc Inerney, who is now my co-host on my podcast The Irish Passport, and I'll always be grateful to him for that.

My first job in the industry was as a subeditor on a financial magazine. In the evenings I wrote for a charity-funded art magazine, and restaurant reviews in exchange for free meals. My big breakthrough was being accepted onto Reuters' graduate trainee scheme. Three things were crucial to that: I spoke Italian thanks to an Erasmus exchange, I knew a bit about the bond market (this was 2011 and the height of the Eurozone crisis), and I had a portfolio of articles.

Within a year I was posted to Rome as a correspondent, and could finally call myself a journalist. Since then I've worked as a correspondent for Reuters, Agence France-Presse, and POLITICO, reporting from countries around Europe including Estonia, Denmark, the Netherlands, the UK, and Ireland. I became Europe Correspondent for The Irish Times just in time for the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic.

How do you think the profession is evolving?

Journalism is being continually disrupted by changes to how people get information. These changes are largely driven by the tech industry, so media has to be reactive. It means that being able to constantly learn and adjust to new formats is a vital skill. So is creativity when it comes to business models. What works today may not work tomorrow.

What are the challenges of balancing your work in print media with podcasting?

Podcasting and reporting for written articles are naturally symbiotic. I love the opportunity to verbally explain on the podcast the complex topics I've been getting to grips with during the week. It's a format that allows for the inclusion of the details you'd recount in a conversation with a friend: the puzzling things that don't make sense, what was annoying, what was funny. I interview

people for the podcast all the time who end up helping my written reporting and vice versa. The work load of course is overwhelming at times. This is the nature of the job though. Journalism is a vocation. Reporters report because they’d driven to do it – no one is doing this to get rich or have an easy life!

learn how to do it almost from scratch.

Who do you admire most within the industry and why?

In terms of impact, last year, a Dutch 17year-old tragically died, and her death was wrongly reported as euthanasia in major news organisations all around the world.

Her name was trending on Twitter internationally, and even the Pope commented on it. I called it out as an error, and this led to corrections and internal inquiries by many major media companies.

I think finding out the truth and communicating it for the benefit of society is a useful and good thing. I love the feistiness of the industry and its irreverence towards power, and getting to take part in editorial meetings with wickedly smart and insightful people at the top of their game. Making a careful blow-by-blow plan about how the

I recently highlighted a fundraiser by the Native American Navajo people who have been hard-hit by Covid-19, and this went viral and Irish people ended up donating as much as $3 million, which was a major impact that I had some role in but can't take credit for – it’s something amazing that came from the grassroots of the country.

“Podcasting and reporting for written articles are naturally symbiotic. I love the opportunity to verbally explain on the podcast the complex topics I've been getting to grips with during the week.” newsroom will cover a breaking news event like an election, and everyone working side-by-side under huge pressure and with the adrenaline pumping to execute it is a brilliant experience.

Of course, I'm really proud of the Irish Passport podcast. It feels like we somehow hit on something that people can relate to, and it really feels like a special community that spans the world.

We've got listeners everywhere from

What has been your most significant story or project to date?

It depends how you measure significance. There have been a few things I've spotted early. One was Bitcoin: I wrote an investigative story about it for Reuters in 2012 which was one of the first times it was covered by major media organisation, explaining how it worked and the way it could challenge our concepts of money and economic systems. One Bitcoin was valued at $4.88 then; today one is $17,145.

India to Argentina. Tim and I built that simply by working on our laptops in our bedrooms, teaching ourselves audio editing, and launching our episodes out into the world.

How do you spend your time outside of work?

At the moment, I'm trying to make sure I do home workouts and get out for walks to combat the sedentary effects of pandemic life! I like doing things with my hands to relax, like cooking or making crafts if I have time, usually with the

I also foresaw that the Irish border would be the major obstacle in the Brexit talks, and started writing about it before the referendum was called, in 2015. Possibly the most challenging thing I did was making a film documentary, as I had to

radio or a documentary on. In normal times I would be travelling continuously between working abroad and being in Ireland with family, but the pandemic has called a halt to all that.

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Domestic violence and Covid-19

Throughout 2020, the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and associated public health restrictions have correlated with a surge in domestic abuse and violence in Ireland. Women’s Aid CEO Sarah Benson writes.

The Covid-19 crisis has been devastating for so many in different ways. Livelihoods have been lost, isolation and loneliness have taken their toll and some have paid the ultimate cost with their lives as a result of contracting the virus. We have been called on to stay home to stay safe and protect ourselves and those we love. However, Covid-19 has created the perfect storm for abusive partners to exercise control and inflict violence on women and children.

Over the last nine months, Women’s Aid has been on the frontline answering calls from women who are trapped at home with very dangerous abusers. Women have told us of the devastating effects that lockdown restrictions have had on them. Abusers have used the restrictions as an excuse not to leave after they have been violent. When abusers did not have physical access to current or former partners, they persisted with the abuse through text, phone call, video call and social media. Women with underlying health conditions also reported instances of their partners deliberately not adhering to Covid-19 restrictions and effectively weaponising the virus by coughing or spitting on them.

During the first national lockdown, our 24-hour National Freephone Helpline responded to a 43 per cent increase in calls between the end of March and the end of June, compared to 2019. There was also a 71 per cent increase in visits

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to the Women’s Aid website for this period. Given this significant rise in contacts during the first lockdown, when the second Level 5 lockdown was announced in late October, Women’s Aid began preparing for a further surge in contacts from women experiencing abuse from their partners.

At this time, the 24-hour National Freephone Helpline has been receiving roughly 1,000 more calls a month than normal and this has been steadily increasing since the second round of Level 5 restrictions were introduced.

Callers have been reporting increased anxiety about abusive partners continuing to work from home with more opportunity to abuse and control them.

The number of women calling with suicidal ideation has also increased and more women are calling in the middle of the night when their abusive partner is asleep. The number of messages to our Instant Messaging Support Service has also increased with women reaching out to seek support silently.

As the pandemic continues, the effects of job losses, remote working and isolation are being felt. However, for those living with domestic violence these factors add complex layers to situations that are already fraught and dangerous.

The reality is that an abuser who may have gone out to work on a daily basis is likely to be at home more, if not all of the time, and this is frightening and

treacherous for the many women and children who are spending these six weeks under suffocating circumstances.

We welcome the continued prioritisation of domestic violence by An Garda Síochana through Operation Faoiseamh.

However, we are urging an all-ofcommunity response at this time and encouraging everyone to be vigilant and perceptive to anyone they feel may be in an abusive, dangerous situation.

We are encouraging anyone who needs support in relation to domestic violence in a personal context or otherwise to reach out to us on the 24-hour National Freephone Helpline 1800 341 900 or the Instant Messaging Support Service available on the Women’s Aid Website.

Women’s Aid is committed to listening, believing and supporting women effected by domestic abuse, especially at this time of increased need.

Sarah Benson is the CEO of Women’s Aid. Women's Aid is a leading national organisation that has been working in Ireland to stop domestic violence against women and children since 1974.

For further information T: +353 (0) 1 678 8858 E: info@womensaid.ie W: www.womensaid.ie

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