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The youth climate movement: Out of sight, out of mind? EPC Commentary May 2021.
Get PDFAlthough the youth climate movement has significantly impacted the EU’s climate action in the past years, the ongoing pandemic hinders the young activists’ possibilities to raise their concerns via on-the-ground protests. The EU must improve its support for the movement by developing its existing participatory tools further and ensure long-term engagement with young citizens.
The social distancing measures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic are forcing young climate activists to pause their street action. Moreover, as the world fixates on managing the health and economic crises, many young people are worried that climate action is being put on the back burner and their voices easily ignored.
As young people will be most affected by climate change, the EU must better support the youth movement. It should ensure that the movement’s demands and needs are being heard and incorporated into EU-level discussions in a systematic and institutionally recognised way. Only through decision-makers’ cooperation with young people can a sustainable and intergenerationally just future be secured
Monitoring decent work in Ireland. ESRI Research Series June 2021.
Get PDFWork is core to people’s livelihood, their identity, and their well-being. Having a decent job gives workers adequate financial resources and contributes to their physical and mental health, their personal control and sense of purpose. Being unemployed or in poor quality work can have a damaging impact on other areas of life, including health, housing, or
income. There has been extensive scholarship on labour market inequalities in Ireland, and while these studies offer significant insight into understanding the nature of work, they do not adopt a rights-based approach. This report considers decent work in Ireland in the context of international obligations about core minimum standards of work and nondiscrimination. It applies social science methods to monitoring international commitments
on economic and social rights.
This report develops a set of indicators for monitoring and then provides baseline figures on access to, and experience of, decent work across different groups in Ireland. Monitoring can provide evidence for policymakers, highlighting at-risk groups; it can inform the assessment
of Ireland by UN international treaty monitoring; it can help to highlight data gaps and measurement limitations; and will also ideally inform public debate. The purpose is to
highlight deficits or challenges in realising the right to decent work, rather than explaining the processes underlying these outcomes.
Following a review of international measurement frameworks and consultation with stakeholders in Ireland, the report identifies six key dimensions of work and corresponding
indicators: access to work; adequate earnings; employee voice; security and stability of work; equality of opportunity and treatment in employment; and health and safety. These are then applied to available survey data collected on the eve of the pandemic. Any assessment of the equality impact of the pandemic will be informed by understanding the situation prior to the pandemic. As is usual for a monitor, results for each indicator are presented as rates or scores for different groups and are not modelled. Therefore, the analysis does not allow us to identify the causes of group differences
Poverty, income inequality and living standards in Ireland. ESRI Report May 2021.
Get PDFThis report – funded by the Community Foundation for Ireland – brings together data from household surveys collected by the ESRI and the Central Statistics Office to create the first harmonised set of indicators on incomes, income inequality and poverty covering the period 1987 to 2019. These will be published on the ESRI website and can be used by policymakers, academics, journalists and the wider public to inform discussions around income inequality, poverty and deprivation
New survey evidence on COVID-19 and Irish SMEs: Measuring the impact and policy response. ESRI Working Paper 698 April 2021.
Get PDFIn this paper, we use new survey data on the Irish SME population to trace out the impact of the pandemic on firms’ revenues, their capacity to adjust their cost base and their usage of policy supports. Between March and October 2020 over 70 per cent of firms experienced some fall in turnover with a median fall of 25 per cent compared to 2019. The impact of the shock appears uncorrelated with past firm performance which highlights its exogenous nature. Expenditure fell by 8.5 per cent on average with 40 per cent of firms cutting spending. Losses were incurred in over 30 per cent of enterprises with a further 30 per cent just breaking even. We find that about 61 per cent of SMEs received wage subsidies, 20 per cent of firms used tax warehousing while fewer than 6 per cent of firms used lending initiatives. Policy support take-up is more likely among those more affected by the downturn, while the smallest firms appear less likely to use support than larger firms
Recreational salmon angling logbook returns. ESRI Research Bulletin 202108 March 2021.
Get PDFThis research uses recreational angling logbook data to explore how the probability of catching a salmon is associated with factors such as fishing methods, location or licence
Utilisation of publicly financed dental and optical services in Ireland – Baseline analysis for the Hippocrates Model. ESRI Survey and Statistical Report Series 99.
Get PDFThis report analyses the types of data available on dental and optical services in a community setting and considers how these might be incorporated into the Hippocrates Model. The Hippocrates Model provides estimates and projections of healthcare demand, capacity and expenditure for a range of Irish health and social care services
EU-US trade structure and risks. ESRI Working Paper 694 January 2021.
Get PDFThis paper maps out the trade relationship in goods between the two largest trading blocs in the global economy – the EU and US. We use detailed product category information to provide an in-depth description of current trade flows between the two markets, with a particular focus on how Irish-US trade patterns compare to those of the EU overall. Along with the overall size of the trade flows, we highlight the extent of diversification in terms of the number of products particularly dependant on the US market. We then examine the structure of current bilateral tariff rates and how these vary across product types. This is done at the most granular level possible, using the product level trade flows compiled by the United Nations and matching them to current tariff levels. This structure is then used to assess potential changes proposed to these tariffs, using the US June 2020 tariff announcement and EU retaliation as illustrations
‘Mixed’ feelings about the EU–Mercosur deal: How to leverage it for sustainable development. Egmont Commentary 14 April 2021.
Get PDFBefore signing the EU–Mercosur trade agreement, the European Commission must deploy all its legal instruments, in close cooperation with the Parliament and Council, to guarantee strong sustainable development commitments from the Mercosur countries. The EU should also avoid concluding the deal as a mixed agreement
An attempt to “deoligarchise” Ukraine – real action or a game of pretence? OSW Commentary Number 415 15.11.2021.
Get PDFOver the past year, President Volodymyr Zelensky has changed his rhetoric towards representatives of big business, commonly referred to as oligarchs. He has made a shift from the position of a neutral arbiter to uttering slogans about combating their excessive influence on politics and the economy. On 5 November, he signed the Oligarchs Act, intended at limiting their influence on politics. In addition, an act amending tax regulations is to be passed in the near future, which will reduce the profits of those who own assets in the iron ore mining sector. However, the solutions adopted are largely of a populist nature and are unlikely to diminish the importance of the oligarchs. Instead, they may prove to be a convenient instrument for the ruling camp to put pressure on big business to ensure its loyalty. This will be crucial if Zelensky, contrary to the announcements he made during the election campaign, decides to seek re-election, which is becoming more and more likely
Drought in the Czech Republic: The political, economic and social consequences. OSW Report 2021-07-09.
Get PDFThe Czech Republic is an example of a state in which drought has become a key issue in public debate. In the Czech Republic, 2020 was the seventh consecutive year of a drought that is considered the most severe in 500 years, and which differs from the previous ones in that it is more prolonged and is characterised by considerably higher temperatures. At its peak, every fifth municipality was exposed to the risk of water scarcity, which was particularly evident in southern Moravia and in north-western regions. The situation is further complicated by the fact that for many years Prague was focusing on the construction of a flood control system and on the mitigation of the consequences of floods. At present, the Czech Republic has the smallest freshwater resources of all the inland EU member states. Despite a gradual improvement in the situation, recorded since May 2020, the problem involving groundwater scarcity has not been fully eliminated, and experts – taking account of long-term climate change trends and structural problems faced by the Czech agricultural and forestry sectors – are expecting a recurrence of an even more severe drought in a couple of years at the latest. A closer look at the Czech Republic’s struggle with drought may prompt more comprehensive analyses regarding the water management policy pursued in Central Europe, a region which is becoming increasingly affected by recurrent droughts