Ireland

General information about the policy process
The Irish Constitution vests executive authority in a government which is headed by the Taoiseach (i.e. the Prime Minister). The current Taoiseach is Micheál Martin who took office on 27 June 2020 (though he will resign his seat in December 2022 as part of a coalition agreement.) He is the leader of Fianna Fáil, the party with the highest number of seats in Dáil Éireann (the Assembly of Ireland), the lower house of the Oireachtas (the Irish parliament or legislature), and was nominated and approved by the Dáil, and appointed by the President of Ireland to his role.

The Department of the Taoiseach is responsible for managing Ireland’s relationship with the EU, and they work in tandem with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Ireland’s Permanent Representation to the EU in Brussels. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is supported by the Minister for European Affairs who deals with EU issues.

Ireland currently has 13 MEPs (Members of the European Parliament) representing Ireland at the European Parliament level. These Minsters are responsible for ensuring that concerns of the Irish people are voiced at a European level when EU policy is formulated.

The European Affairs Committee of the Oireachtas informs debate on the EU by regularly engaging with EU institutions to monitor the political direction of the Union and by monitoring EU legislation and proposals.

Dosier Chosen:  Posting of Workers

The Department of Business, Enterprise, and Innovation is responsible for regulation of the workplace in Ireland. Under the umbrella of this department is the Workplace Relations Commission (“WRC”)  According to Ireland’s Citizens Information Bureau, the WRC is “the body to which all workplace relations disputes and all disputes and complaints about employment laws are presented”. Under the auspices of the WRC, several bodies are responsible for various forms and levels of Enforcement and Redress of labour legislation in Ireland.

The Citizens Information Bureau provides information to those looking to migrate to Ireland for work, no matter what their citizenship, including those from EU member states. As for posted workers, the WRC Council Directive 96/71/EC was adopted in 2014 and transposed into Irish Law in 2016 as a “miscellaneous provision of the Protection of Employees (Part-time Work) Act 2001”. Forms and publications on workers’ rights in Ireland are made available in several languages, however the only EU languages, besides Irish, are French, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, and Russian. The WRC requires those posting workers to Ireland to complete a Form of Declaration so that the WRC may “monitor posting activity and ensure compliance with posting rules”.

Form of Declaration (PDF)

European Union (Posting of Workers) Regulations 2016 (SI No. 412 of 2016)

Dossier Chosen: Air Quality
The Department of Communications, Climate Action and the Environment is responsible for implementing Clean Air legislation in Ireland. It is currently working on a National Clean Air Strategy [] which was due to be published in 2017 but has still not been published at time of writing ( May 2020). It involved consultation with a many stakeholders and input from EU experts but  the government has been criticised for implementation delaysThe Journal.ie, 2019. In terms of monitoring and enforcement the Environmental Protection Agency is responsible EPA It is acknowledged that this policy area involves many different policy areas, for example transport, domestic fuel and industry hence a coordianated approach is needed. Awaress of the health risks is increasing as it is now clear that even low levels of air pollution have significant negative health effects Health Impacts of Air Pollution, EEA, 2020 and there are also social justice implications as poorer people tend to live in areas with lower air quality.