Irish Environmental Policy After the Economic Crisis: More of the Same but with Less?,

This chapter examines whether Irelands sudden economic recession over the years 200813 has led to disruption of Irish environmental policy activity. The somewhat counter-intuitive answer offered here is that Irish environmental policy activity has remained resilient. No obvious environmental policy dismantling has occurred, although it should be borne in mind that Ireland was never an environmental pioneer state to begin with. Irish authorities have merely persevered with a relatively average level of environmental policy ambition. None of this is to say that the economic crisis from 2008 to 2013 was without any impact on Irish environmental policy. Indeed, this chapter argues that subtle trends are evident, such as a shift towards softer transport infrastructure investments and a more permissive space for green taxes. The two explanations put forward here to account for Irish environmental policy activity are the European Unions role in producing outputs that national governments must transpose, and the political impact of small Green parties in government.