10 Years On: How Ireland Has Changed Since the Financial Crisis

1:30pm, Friday, 28 September 2018

The Institute for Lifecourse and Society Building, NUI Galway

In the fateful decade since the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the Bank Guarantee of September 2008, much has happened in Ireland – financial crisis, deep recession, bailout by the ‘Troika’, a protracted period of austerity followed by vigorous economic recovery. But what has really changed over the last ten years? What developments in the financial and political system have taken place and what has been the cultural effect of the crisis? Will we repeat the same mistakes or find ways to avoid them? A major public event convened by the Moore Institute and Whitaker Institute at NUI Galway will examine these questions with a high profile group of participants, including keynote speeches by former Central Bank of Ireland governor Patrick Honohan and playwright and author Colin Murphy.

Conference Programme

14:00 – 14:05
Joint welcome
Alan Ahearne, Director, Whitaker Institute
Daniel Carey, Director, Moore Institute

14:05 – 14:15
Opening remarks
Ciarán Ó hOgartaigh, President, NUI Galway

14.15 – 14:35
Keynote speech
Patrick Honohan
former Governor, Central Bank of Ireland

14:35 – 15:35
Panel discussion
Chair: Ciarán Ó hOgartaigh

  • Angela Knight CBE, former Chief Executive, British Bankers’ Association
  • John McHale, Dean, College of Business, Public Policy & Law, NUI Galway
  • Frances Ruane, former Director, Economic and Social Research Institute

15:35 – 16:00 Open discussion
16:00 – 16:20 Coffee break

16:20 – 16:40
Keynote speech
Colin Murphy
Playwright and author

Chair: Alan Ahearne

16:40 – 17:45
Panel discussion
Chair: Dan Carey

  • Stephen Collins, former Political Editor, Irish Times
  • Kate Kenny, Professor, Queen’s University Belfast
  • Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh, Emeritus Professor in History, NUI Galway
  • Fiona Ross, Chair, CIÉ

17:45 – 18:00 Open discussion

This event will take place in the ILAS Building on the north of the NUI Galway campus from 1:30-6pm. A reception with light refreshments will follow the event.

The event is free and open to the public, however those who wish to attend must pre-register.

One reply on “10 Years On: How Ireland Has Changed Since the Financial Crisis”

It’s great to see these events taking place outside the Pale. They deserve support and it would be good if they were to have a continuing impact on the public understanding of economics and the formulation of public policy. Some follow-up on the proceedings might be useful, and, in relation to the previous event on the LPT and water charges, like buses, we’ve now had not just one, but two wide-ranging and detailed academic assessments of the water charge debacle coming along at the same time time:
http://www.ucd.ie/t4cms/UCDReportontheFailureofIrishDomesticWaterChargesFinal130918.pdf

The interest in the water charges debacle is valid because it was highly significant in terms of political economy, public policy formulation and democratic governance – even if the papers published to date go quite close but fail to capture fully the underlying reasons.

However, unfortunately, the effort expended may be a saothar in aisce because the one lesson most likely learned by governing politicians and policy-makers is to stay well away from any consideration of household water charges – and from the use of direct charges in other areas where they might be perfectly sensible and justifiable. And the other lesson is likely to be that the spin, bullshit-generation and PR activities should be far, far more sophisticated, co-ordinated and stream-lined when a number of cunning, inter-locking mechanisms are being devised to square a plethora of potentially competing and powerful special interests at the public expense.

That’s understandable, if unfortunate, because sometimes a bit of honesty might be welcomed by our grown-up electorate – but that seems to be asking for too much from our governing politicians, senior policy-makers and academics with a “public-standing”.

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