Policy Review Section

Abstract

In this issue of the Policy Review Section, Peter Shirlow of the School of Geosciences, the Queen's University of Belfast, critically examines the economic development policies of the Irish Republic based upon the attraction of foreign direct investors. It is argued that Ireland's G D P has been grossly exaggerated because of transfer price fixing by transnational corporations and that the strategy of attracting T N Cs has failed to benefit indigenous industry. This leads to a set of policy conclusions based upon a much more interventionist approach towards the T N C sector at national and European levels. In the second article Siobhan Kenny of the Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin, continues the theme of the need to improve Irish industrial development policy through consideration of the concept of a National Innovation System. It is argued that it is necessary to improve the structures which facilitate technology transfer and introduce measures to enable indigenous firms appropriate new technology, if the programme of attracting inward investment is to realize the potential benefit to the national economy. In the third article, Philip Boland of the Department of City and Regional Planning, University of Wales Cardiff, and Michael Mannin and John Wallace of the Division of Health and Social Science, Liverpool John Moores University, examine the experience of European funding in Merseyside. The article considers in particular the implications of securing Objective 1 status and the establishment of a new Government Office for Merseyside.