Critical Junctures: Regulatory Failures, Ireland's Administrative State and the Office of the Ombudsman (original) (raw)

In the aftermath of global financial crisis, the importance of effective regulatory interventions by government has come into sharp relief. The failure of public administration and political oversight that underwrote the collapse of the Irish economy in 2008 has provoked widespread reflection on the need for increased administrative review in the country. This has extended beyond the specific financial sphere, to broader public law reform targeting executive power by building an improved parliamentary culture, greater independent oversight and concentrating democratic participation. In this article, we critique the Irish regulatory state through the prism of the pressures, conflicts and reforms to the Office of the Ombudsman over the past decade. The Office of Ombudsman has been a distinctive nodal point in the interest conflicts and oppositionalities that marked the past decade in Irish constitutional and political order.3 In response to the crash, political leaders have promised 'root and branch reform', with the incoming government appointing Ireland's first Minister of State for Public Sector Expenditure and Reform. The Minister, Brendan Howlin TD has stated that the aim is for " a new maturity in our approach to government's relationship with the citizen " , and to " contribute to opening up the 'black box' of government to a much greater degree than heretofore. " 4 This represents an acknowledgement of Ireland's deep governance crisis, which underwrote experiences of liberalised financial regulation and a political culture whose failure to correct property bubbles reflected the predominance of 'retail politics'.5 The Office of the Ombudsman is at

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