Reform and policymaking: Theory and practice in the Irish housing context

Abstract

It is often a crisis that is the necessary catalyst for change, and the financial crash provided the stimulus for the recent raft of public sector reforms since 2010. A new decade provides an opportunity to assess the reforms, and to question where the reform around housing sits in relation to theoretical approaches to the policy process. The Irish public policy process is the result of a historical mix of ideological and cultural practice, social policy and political process, and it is this complexity which provides its uniqueness. However, theories of the policy process aid effective analysis of policy landscapes, and the use of elements from a range of approaches enables a fuller understanding of that complexity. By offering a theoretical perspective, and providing the reader with a different outlook, we explore the drivers for, and outcomes of, change in the Irish housing context. We find that the reform agenda is itself a means of maintaining the current, as it is unlikely that the reforms implemented since 2010 will address the structural flaws evident in the housing crisis. Instead, a more likely outcome is that the reforms are a necessary change so as to maintain the status quo.