Irish System Research Articles

The juries’ wisdom in the administration of criminal justice: Irish jurisdiction and the Italian justice system in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries

This article aims to investigate the relationship between professional judges and laypersons in criminal matters, with special reference to the decision-making procedure performed by the Irish system and the Italian system in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The paper focuses on judges’ and jurors’ duties both before and after the verdict. This field of research provides context for a careful consideration on some fundamental issues, such as the judges’ charges and their influence over the jury, the principle of reasonable doubt, the distinction between unanimous verdicts and verdicts by majority vote, and the consequences of a disagreement among jurors. A comparative approach reveals how two European countries with a distinctive legal tradition faced the same problems by adopting different solutions.

Competition Damages Claims in Ireland: The Damages Directive Improves the Irish System Though Obstacles Remain

The Damages Directive and the implementing Irish legislation apply to infringements of EU (and Irish) competition law that occurred on or after 27 December 2016. Irish litigation rules were already well developed but the Directive will augment and add to the Irish rules on disclosure, the effect of national decisions on competition law, limitation periods, joint and several liability, quantification of harm, passing-on of overcharges and consensual dispute resolution. However, obstacles remain to bringing competition damages claims in Ireland. In particular, the absence of any class action system and litigation funding coupled with the lack of any real history of such claims will limit the ability to bring such actions in Ireland.

Catholic Education – the International Context

Catholic Education – the International Context Paul Meany The Irish education system, like others around the world, has evolved from a combination of religious, political, philosophical and economic factors. However, we are inclined to think that our history has created an almost unique system of mostly non-governmental schools, underpinned by the 1937 Constitution and dominated for a long time by the Catholic Church, which must now change in the light of the rapidly changing Ireland of the twenty-first century. The purpose of this article is to show that, while there are singular features of the Irish system, it is actually underpinned by the same principles and philosophies that operate in most of the countries of the world. In particular, I want to show that parents and other groups throughout the world have the right (underpinned by internationally agreed covenants) to set up nongovernmental schools with a particular philosophy, and I will look at the situation of Catholic education in Europe to demonstrate this point in some detail. Secondly, I want to show that those covenants also oblige each state to provide monies to pay for compulsory education, whether that education takes place in a state school or in a recognised non-governmental school. In this regard, I will again use Europe to demonstrate the widespread use of state funds for non-governmental Catholic schools. Finally, at a time when the place of faith-based schools is under discussion, not just in Ireland but in many countries around the world, I want to suggest some reasons why there has never been a more important time for Catholic voluntary schools to present their message to students of all faiths and none. Setting the scene AfterthefalloftheRomanEmpireandthenearextinctionofearlyChristianity, sixth century Irish missionaries spearheaded the re-Christianisation of the continent, a second coming which has left its legacy on the map of Europe Paul Meany Studies • volume 108 • number 429 32 to this day. With the exception of the 500 years of the Moors’ presence in Spain and the 550 years of the Ottomans in the south-east, Europe was and has remained an essentially Christian continent up to the start of the current century. (Indeed, the re-emergence of Islam, as a result of immigration from Turkey, North Africa and the Middle East, is now a central issue on the European political agenda today). Two great schisms (1054 AD and 1517 AD) have divided Christian Europe into three parts: the East (with Orthodox majorities in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Macedonia and Greece), the North (with ‘Protestant’ majorities in Iceland, Britain, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Northern Germany, Denmark and Northern Netherlands) and the South/Central area (with Catholic majorities in Portugal, Spain, France, Southern Netherlands, Belgium, Southern Germany, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, Slovenia, Croatia, Malta, Italy and, of course, Ireland). The Christian religion has been, thus, a major pillar underpinning European education systems as they developed from Church schools and universities in the nineteenth century. A second pillar has been the influence of the medieval Renaissance in art and culture, together with the eighteenth century Age of Enlightenment, with its fervent development of philosophy, politics, science and economics. The final pillar was constructed in the nineteenth century with the emergence of the ‘nation state’. As national identity came more to the fore, states began to create education systems to serve both the needs of the people and the needs of the state. Since most early schools had been associated with religious organisations, the states incorporated religion and other aspects of the national culture into the new state systems that they were keen to create. Furthermore, with the exceptions of Cuba, North Korea and Gambia (which only have state schools), to this day every education system that evolved around the world has allowed for a diverse mixture of state and nongovernmental schools. Rights and covenants: what civil society aspires to Having set the scene, let us now return to the question raised at the outset: the right of parents and other groups to set up non-governmental schools with a particular philosophy. As civil society was re-established after the Second World War, states began to agree...

The family foster care system in Ireland – Advances and challenges

This paper sets out to give a rounded view of the Irish foster care system as currently constituted. It will cover areas such as the law and policy framework, key data, key institutional actors, views of the system from the perspective of key stakeholders (care experienced adults and young people, foster carers and their children and the biological parents of children in foster care), and distinctive features of the Irish system. It will also offer a brief review of key influences that have helped shape the current system and Ireland's move from high use of institutional care to high rates of family placement. It will also consider challenges that still face policy and practice in the Irish foster care system. The paper takes a multi-disciplinary approach drawing on evidence from various perspectives including law, history and social policy. Offering the Irish case in this paper is not to claim or imply that the Irish system is fully developed or has resolved all its challenges. As will become clear, the argument here is that Ireland is an interesting case not because of any (erroneous) claim that it is the finished article as a foster care system. It is interesting because it is both a system that is still in development, and is also one that has already made the transition from a system dominated by residential care to one heavily reliant on family placement.

Stability Analysis of Power Systems With Inclusion of Realistic-Modeling WAMS Delays

This paper studies the impact of realistic wide-area measurement system (WAMS) time-varying delays on the dynamic behavior of power systems. A detailed model of WAMS delays including quasi-periodic, stochastic, and constant components is presented. Then, this paper discusses numerical methods to evaluate the small-signal stability as well as the time-domain simulation of power systems with inclusion of such delays. The small-signal stability analysis is shown to be able to capture the dominant modes through the combination of a characteristic matrix approximation and a Newton correction technique. A case study based on the IEEE 14-bus system compares the accuracy of the small-signal stability analysis with Monte Carlo time-domain simulations. Finally, the numerical efficiency of the proposed technique is tested through a real-world dynamic model of the all-island Irish system.

Children in immediate danger: Emergency removals in Finnish and Irish child protection

AbstractThis paper presents a qualitative analysis of front‐line practices regarding emergency removals in Finnish and Irish child protection. It examines how the responses to children's immediate danger are framed by legislation and how front‐line practitioners assess the child's situation and make emergency placement decisions. The data consist of interviews with 16 Irish and 33 Finnish social workers. These child welfare protection systems respond differently to a task that appears to be similar. The Irish team‐based practice rests on the social workers' shared assessment of the child's needs, and the formal decision is made by the courts (or police officers at night‐time); and the Finnish practice involves only one single social worker who makes both the assessment and the removal decision. The Irish system is tightly time regulated, whereas the Finnish system provides a more flexible time frame. Both approaches put a lot of stress on social workers' practice, which also includes creative workarounds (e.g., “planned emergency removals” in Finland). Future research will need to explore these features from the point of view of a child's right to protection.

Model-Agnostic Linear Estimation of Generator Rotor Speeds Based on Phasor Measurement Units

This paper focuses on the estimation of the rotor speeds of synchronous machines by means of phasor measurement units. This estimation is aimed at online monitoring of electromechanical transients and transient stability analysis. The proposed technique is based on the concept of frequency divider formula recently published by the first two authors in these Transactions. The dynamic state estimation is formally stated as a convex optimization problem and a thorough discussion of the sensitivity analysis of the optimal solution is provided. The case study considers a dynamic 1479-bus model of the all-island Irish system and discusses the effect of bad data, noise, and latency on the proposed estimation technique.

Towards a Court Mandated Harmonization of National Tax Rules Case 552/15, Commission v. Ireland

The CJEU’s judgment in Commission v. Ireland is not just another case concerning a national system of vehicle registration taxes. It is true that the object of the dispute was Ireland’s system of vehicle registration taxes and the way it was applied to vehicles leased in another Member State. The Court confirmed its earlier case law and considered the Irish system contrary to EU law because of a lack of proportionality. The court however went further, and expressly stated how the tax system should have been designed to be proportionate. This approach touches upon the exclusive competence of EU Member States in the designing of their national tax systems. Indeed, it raises the question whether the Court is simply protecting free movement rights or whether it is in fact harmonizing national tax systems through the application of its proportionality test.

‘After the manner of the Irish schools’: the influence of Irish national education in the British Empire

The establishment of the Commissioners of National Education in 1831 provided Ireland with a non-denominational education system that was aimed at uniting the population. The development and implementation of a state-controlled system of education represents a shift in policy away from a disciplinary mechanism used to proselytise Irish children to that of a governmental technology directed at influencing the conduct of the population. This paper looks at the ideology that influenced Irish national education, how that was representative of a wider imperial ideology, and how the Irish system itself influenced the spread of that ideology. It briefly examines the rationale, structure and operation of the national system, showing the attempt to refocus social relations through encouraging cooperation in the establishment and management of schools. In this way the influence of national education went beyond the classroom to wider society. The influence of Irish education reforms are then examined in respect to those in England and in the Anglophone colonies, notably in Canada and Australia. The direct influence of the Irish system across the British Empire, including the textbooks published in Ireland, represents the development of a wider rationale aimed at changing the conduct of colonists and creating imperial citizens. The Irish national system therefore went far beyond a model for the structure of an educational system, but also encouraged the spread of an imperial ideology that legitimised and secured the governance of colonial authorities across the British Empire.

Bunching of residential building energy performance certificates at threshold values

Energy performance certificates (EPC) provide a measure of and raise awareness of the energy efficiency of homes. The Irish system of energy performance certificates comprises fifteen alpha-numeric grades, which imposes fourteen discrete notches in an otherwise continuous scale. Visual evidence of bunching occurs in the distribution of EPC certificates on the favourable side of EPC grades among homes that have completed energy efficiency retrofits but not in the equivalent distribution of EPC certificates prior to completion of retrofits. Using a regression discontinuity design and estimation of a counter-factual distribution, evidence is found of bunching in the post-works distribution but not the pre-works distribution. We analyse whether statistical evidence exists of drivers of this bunching and whether sources of bunching can be identified. We find that bunching is widespread but not systemic and find discontinuities in the distribution of certain parameters of assessment (i.e. low energy lighting) which suggests their contribution toward bunching. With comparable EPC schemes across Europe the results have policy implications for other countries. Where continuous EPC scales are used, additional energy efficiency improvements may be achieved if a multi-point scale is considered. In countries where multi-point EPC scales are used, bunching of assessments is also likely to occur and quality control measures may be necessary to ensure that the bunching is due to genuine energy efficiency improvements and not a reflection of illicit activity.

Primal and Dual Generalized Eigenvalue Problems for Power Systems Small-Signal Stability Analysis

The paper presents a comprehensive study of small-signal stability analysis of power systems based on matrix pencils and the generalized eigenvalue problem. Both primal and dual formulations of the generalized eigenvalue problem are considered and solved through a variety of state-of-the-art solvers. The paper also discusses the impact on the performance of the solvers of two formulations of the equations modelling the power systems, namely, the explicit and semi-implicit form of differential-algebraic equations. The case study illustrates the theoretical aspects and numerical features of these formulations and solvers through two real-world systems, namely, a 1,479-bus model of the all-island Irish system, and a 21,177-bus model of the ENTSO-E network.

Integrated Care in Diabetes: Impact of Email Decision Support on Community Type 2 Diabetes Service in the Midlands in Ireland

Introduction: In Ireland, significant progress in management of patients with diabetes in the community has been made with the introduction of ‘Cycle of Care’ system. However, the Irish system is still heavily dependent on secondary care for management of patients with type 2 diabetes and integrated care between the community and secondary care remains haphazard. Since 1998 the Midlands Structured Diabetes Programme has been providing structured care in the community for patients with type 2 diabetes. This involves 3-4 patient visits per year with care being delivered by GP and practice nurse, supported by Community Nurse Specialists. Since 2011 the CNSs have been able to access support from secondary care as part of evolution of the programme to tie in with proposed National Model of Care. Objective: 1) improve glycaemic control of complex patients with type 2 diabetes 2) lower hospital referral rates and hospital admission rates 3) empower GPs and community nurses to manage more complex patients with type 2 diabetes Methods: The decision support consisted of specific case emails sent by the community diabetes nurses in Westmeath and Longford to the specialist endocrinologist in Regional Hospital Mullingar, in relation to strategy for improving glycaemic control of individual patients attending different GP practices enrolled in the Structured Care Programme. Data was collected for cases between 2011 and 2016. Results: Demographics: Mean Age: 65 (+/- 12.6) Gender = 34 Male 26 Female Glucose control Mean baseline HbA1c from the year 2011 – 2015 is 61.3mmol/mol [± 15.4, (n=44)]. 1 year after the advice, HbA1c improve to 59.1 [±13.3 (n=25)], at 2 years is 62.5mmol/mol [± 13.2 (n=21)], at 3 years is 62.2mmol/mol [± 15.9 (n=17)] and at 4 years is 63.0mmol/mol[± 12.3 (n=20)]. Proportion of patients with improved glycaemic control in 1 year after the advice is 48% (n=12/25), at year 2 is 52% (n=11/21) and in year 3 is 47% (n=8/17) Complications: 30% (n=18) had macrovascular complications. 15.0 % (n=9) of patients had chronic kidney disease. 10.0 % (n=6) had previous stroke or TIA. 16.7% (n=10) had ischaemic heart disease. Type of referral Glucose management: 90.0 % (n=54) Driving advice: 1.6% (n=1) Advice on cardiovascular risk: 5.0% (n=3) Conclusion: Email Decision Support of patients with complex Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in the community setting leads to improved glucose control and is sustainable and assists in service development and efficiency. This can potentially be applied to the new ‘Cycle of Care’ diabetes care system in the Irish Health Service.

Tackling Vulnerability to Labour Exploitation through Regulation: The Case of Migrant Fishermen in Ireland

In November 2015, the Guardian newspaper reported severe and widespread abuse of migrant workers within the Irish fishing industry.1 The patterns of exploitation identified by the team of journalists mirror findings across other jurisdictions and sectors relating to the labour conditions of migrant workers.2 They included workers being confined to vessels unless given permission to go on land; receiving no proper rest days; and being paid less than half the Irish minimum wage.3 The Guardian reports led to intense media coverage and pressure on the Irish Government, prompting the immediate formation of a Task Force and ultimately the adoption of an ‘Atypical Working Scheme for non-EEA crew in the Fishing Fleet’4 which sought to formalise and regularise the workers’ immigration and employment status. This is not a legislative measure as such: in the Irish system, atypical working schemes are administrative measures emanating from the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (within the Department of Justice and Equality). Atypical working schemes provide for permits for ‘atypical, short term employment’ not governed by the Employment Permits Acts 2003–20145 and thus constitute a form of regulatory regime for temporary labour migration. Ancillary reforms included the clarification of enforcement powers of the labour inspectorate to facilitate inspection of fishing vessels and the adoption of an inter-agency Memorandum of Understanding between the key enforcement bodies to streamline the effective enforcement of health and safety, marine and employment regulations in the sector. This package of measures constitutes an attempt to address the vulnerability to labour exploitation of a group of migrant workers primarily through the medium of ordinary employment and immigration regulation, as opposed to a criminal justice approach akin to that adopted in the UK in the Modern Slavery Act 2015, for example.6 This article examines the Atypical Scheme as a potential model of good practice for the use of regulation to counteract vulnerability to labour exploitation of migrant workers. More broadly, it considers the dual role of the law in this domain. The legal and institutional framework plays a significant role in creating vulnerability to labour exploitation. Paradoxically, however, legal tools also have the potential to counteract or address this vulnerability. On the question of the appropriate legal tools to counteract vulnerability to labour exploitation among migrant workers, Zou has concluded that neither the international human rights framework nor the trafficking/‘modern slavery’ discourse, adequately responds to the complex realities of migrants’ work relations on a continuum of exploitation.7 This article is based on the premise that a focus on protective labour law regulation and enforcement is more likely to respond to these realities. As the analysis here reveals, the devil is in the detail: industry-appropriate regulation; effective enforcement; and evidence-based policy development are essential to ensure that legal reforms which appear progressive on paper have a real impact on the protection of workers’ rights.

A NATIONAL DEMENTIA REGISTER FOR IRELAND: THE RIGHT APPROACH TO MEETING OUR DEMENTIA DATA NEEDS?

With dementia prevalence set to increase as our population ages, there is an urgent need to gather valid epidemiological data in Ireland that provides accurate and reliable estimates of current and future dementia prevalence and facilitates the development of effective dementia health and social policy. This study examined the feasibility of developing a national dementia register for Ireland. A rapid review of national and international patient registry literature was undertaken to identify registry functions, underlying design and process models, best-practice guidelines for their development, and the legal, ethical, clinical, technology, and financial issues relevant to the creation of an Irish dementia registry. Following ethical approval, we also conducted two focus groups with people with dementia and twenty-one expert stakeholder interviews with clinicians, and representatives from research, health, and social care organisations in Ireland and the UK, existing Irish patient registries, and international dementia registries. Discussions followed an agreed structure, were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analysed using inductive content analysis. Common themes that emerged from the literature review and stakeholder discussions were: registry function; registry data; benefits and risks; governance; legislation; barriers and facilitators; lessons learned; best practice; and complexities within the Irish system. Given the government strategy of addressing research and information systems as part of the 2014 National Dementia Strategy, it is opportune to examine the best approach to improving dementia data recording in Ireland. These results provide an evidence-base on which to progress this debate.

Public Education & Civic Responsibility in a Constrained Financial Environment. The Argument Against Income Contingent Loans in Ireland for Higher Education Financing

The ICL model as outlined in current policy discussions cannot work in Ireland due to the high probability of default. The Irish system is neither small enough or large enough to make an ICL work. As it stands in any ICL scenario a minimum of 10 years of losses would have to be absorbed by the ICL system or by HEIs, preventing any capital expenditure during that decade. The cost benefit analysis excluding set-up costs, legal enforcement and judicial review still does not support the implementation of the ICL model proposed by Cassells.

Michael Adams, Censorship and Catholic Activism

Studies • volume 106 • number 421 49 Michael Adams, Censorship and Catholic Activism1 Patrick Maume Michael Adams’ career displays some interesting exceptions to received generalisations about the cultural-religious divisions of post-1960s Ireland. The fact that Adams was both a leading critic of the pre-1967 Irish system of literary censorship (and the author of a classic text on its workings) and a celibate member of Opus Dei has often been seen as incongruous and, when I began research, I assumed that while his career as a publisher would be welldocumented , it would be difficult to find much about his Opus Dei activities. In fact, his occasional writings, notably reported speeches and letters to the papers from the 1960s and 1970s, mid-1960s columns for the magazine Hibernia, and late-1970s and early-1980s book reviews on Catholic topics in The Irish Press, make it possible to say a good deal about how Adams related his activities to Opus Dei spirituality. These writings also show that he was not a simple pre-Vatican II traditionalist. He was an example of a phenomenon more conspicuous in Britain and the United States than in Ireland – someone critical of aspects of pre-conciliar Catholicism and regarded as a ‘liberal’ in pre-conciliar terms, who saw the Council as a Catholic evangelisation project, which stemmed from the mid-century Catholic cultural revival, rather than as an assimilation of Catholicism to secular modernity. In this way, without having changed his underlying beliefs and attitudes, he was regarded as ‘conservative’ in the post-conciliar era.2 This paper falls into two parts. The first outlines Michael Adams’ life and career, relating his expressed beliefs and actions to the Opus Dei project of developing a Catholic lay spirituality of work and the everyday. The second discusses his comments on literary censorship, not so much in his book Censorship: The Irish Experience (1968), as in occasional journalistic writings before and after the 1967 censorship reform. Extensive quotations from some of these lesser-known writings give an indication of his mindset. There are three preliminary points I would like to make. The first is that I was slightly acquainted with Michael Adams, but never discussed these Michael Adams, Censorship and Catholic Activism 50 Studies • volume 106 • number 421 topics with him. The second is that I have not been in any sense a member of Opus Dei, though I have friends who are members; this paper’s primary focus in discussing Opus Dei is on relating the actions and published reflections of one individual to his vision of its spirituality, rather than an overview of the organisation as a whole. For a survey by a relatively sympathetic outsider I suggest the study of Opus Dei by theAmerican religious journalist JohnAllen Jr.3 The third point is methodological: published statements, often made with an apologetic purpose, do not tell the whole story of a person’s attitudes. Furthermore, Adams’ contributions to the secular press tail off after the early 1980s, possibly because of changes in reporting attitudes, possibly because he was more preoccupied with his publishing activities, so it is harder to trace his reactions to later developments. MICHAELADAMS’ LIFE AND CAREER Michael Adams was born in Dublin on 22 June 1937, the eldest child of Francis Adams, Enniskillen cattle-dealer, victualler and Justice of the Peace for Fermanagh (from a Catholic landowning family), and his wife Mary or Maud (néeAtteridge), born a Protestant, whose father was a County Inspector in the RUC.4 Francis Adams was a member of the hunt and yacht club and had customers in both communities. Adams recalled: [I] was brought up among Protestants whom I treated as well and as badly as I treated Catholics long before the word ‘ecumenism’ became de rigueur for all non-controversial contacts between people of different faiths. Now, instead of that natural, obvious relationship I find that there is a risk that my relationship with non-Catholics will be understood as ‘official’ or smacking of ‘ecumenical activity’… like the parish priest who used to often attend Christening parties of his Protestant neighbours and now finds that such attendance is expected or official or something other than the...

Leaving Behind the Commonwealth Model of Rights Review: Ireland as an Example of Collaborative Constitutionalism

This paper develops a model of collaborative constitutionalism as an alternative to conventional models of constitutional review. It argues that the Irish system of rights-based review differs in important ways from the new Commonwealth model of constitutionalism advanced by Stephen Gardbaum. While the Irish courts possess 'strong form' powers of judicial review, the paper provides a detailed examination of the interpretative and substantive principles of Irish law that function, in practice, as structural barriers to judicial supremacy.The paper moves on to argue that these factors are not unique to the Irish situation. Similar principles can be found in other constitutional systems. The paper argues therefore that, between the American model of so-called ‘strong form’ of judicial review and the new Commonwealth model of parliamentary-judicial dialogue, the Irish experience reflects a possible third way, which ‘eschew the exaggerated images of institutional conflict that the language of judicial or parliamentary supremacy tends to evoke’.

Critical junctures and the Department of Finance: from DPS to DPER?

ABSTRACTCritical junctures are an enduring concept in the study of institutional change, but the literature prompts a certain amount of definitional ambiguity around what a critical juncture is, and how best we should approach describing and explaining these rare instances of change. This paper presents and utilises a revised critical juncture framework, which helps to explore the role of context, openings, institutions, ideas, agents and discourse in these significant change events. The framework is then utilised in relation to the Irish Department of Finance (DoF), which is a pivotal institution at the heart of the Irish system of government. It is argued that the DoF’s position and influence in government have been impacted by three institutional change events, involving the establishment of the Department of the Public Service (DPS) in 1973; its disbandment in 1987; and the establishment of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER) in 2011. The available evidence supports a linkage between DPS’ establishment and DPER’s establishment almost 40 years later.

Institutional Crowding Out? FDI and Centralized Wage Bargaining in Ireland

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is widely seen as an indicator of economic health and is much sought after by developed and developing nations alike. I present here a theoretical basis for the possibility of perverse effects of FDI-oriented development on the underpinnings of the economy, even where FDI's first order economic effects appear positive. In a preliminary empirical application, furthermore, I suggest that Ireland’s highly successful strategy of attracting FDI has had such an effect by altering the dramatis personae of its political economy so as to constrain the margins and methods of adjustment available to it during its recent economic crisis. Specifically, the tendency of (mostly American) multinational corporations (MNCs) operating in Ireland to adopt the industrial relations practices of their origin country rather than those of their host country has contributed to the development of a trade union movement that is disproportionately dominated by sheltered, and in particular public sector unions – more so than might be the case in the absence of an FDI-oriented development strategy. This institutional crowding out has in turn undermined the capacity of Irish “neo-corporatism” to maintain (or regain) national competitiveness whether through wage-setting or fiscal policy – the two chief margins of national adjustment available to policymakers following Ireland’s entry into Europe’s Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). Instead the Irish system of centralized tripartite wage- and policy-bargaining – “neocorporatism” – that emerged to much surprise in response to one profound economic crisis in the 1980s, has collapsed in the face of one in the 2010s.

A multi vector energy analysis for interconnected power and gas systems

This paper presents the first multi vector energy analysis for the interconnected energy systems of Great Britain (GB) and Ireland. Both systems share a common high penetration of wind power, but significantly different security of supply outlooks. Ireland is heavily dependent on gas imports from GB, giving significance to the interconnected aspect of the methodology in addition to the gas and power interactions analysed. A fully realistic unit commitment and economic dispatch model coupled to an energy flow model of the gas supply network is developed. Extreme weather events driving increased domestic gas demand and low wind power output were utilised to increase gas supply network stress. Decreased wind profiles had a larger impact on system security than high domestic gas demand. However, the GB energy system was resilient during high demand periods but gas network stress limited the ramping capability of localised generating units. Additionally, gas system entry node congestion in the Irish system was shown to deliver a 40% increase in short run costs for generators. Gas storage was shown to reduce the impact of high demand driven congestion delivering a reduction in total generation costs of 14% in the period studied and reducing electricity imports from GB, significantly contributing to security of supply.