Foreword

Dr. Garret FitzGerald

In Ireland we have been curiously deficient in terms of outlets for discussion of public policy. There are, of course, journals which sometimes accommodate contributions on aspects of public policy, but either their primary focus lies elsewhere, e.g. the Economic and Social Review, or else they specialise in only one side of public policy, e.g. Administration.

The contents of the first issue of this new Journal demonstrates how wide is the field of public policy - and the current state of our economy and society proclaims the need for far more debate on such issues.

To name but one area that deserves more attention than it has hitherto received, I would suggest that more attention could usefully be given to the interaction of politicians and civil servants during the lifetime of our state. The performance of both groups might be improved if their respective records were critically examined over various periods of the almost ninety years that have passed since the state was founded.

Again the quality of parliamentary scrutiny and legislative debate in Dail and Seanad , and in their Committees, merits more study and debate than we have hitherto seen. .

I like the inclusion of Opinion Pieces as well as articles, and I hope that the Journal’s columns will be opened to critical discussion of the articles it publishes.

I wish this venture well and look forward to becoming a regular beneficiary of its publication!