Access to Childcare and Home Care Services across Europe. An Analysis of the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU SILC), 2016. Social Inclusion Report No 8. September 2019

This report uses EU-SILC data for 2016 to examine differences by social risk group and social class in access to care services – specifically, childcare and home care for people with an illness or disability. We focus on 11 countries and four welfare regimes across Europe. We also examine the association between access to these services and both poverty and employment. There are three main findings. First, countries with universal services, or a strong welfare state, provide greater access to care overall, and greater access for vulnerable social risk and social class groups. Countries with means tested services offer lower coverage which results in a greater chance of unmet need for care. Second, certain social-risk groups have a higher chance of experiencing unmet need for childcare and home care. Social class or household composition differences within such groups cannot fully explain their likelihood of reporting unmet need. This suggests that social-risk groups are particularly vulnerable to unmet need. Third, unmet need for childcare and home care is associated with deprivation and, in the case of childcare, non-employment. In this way, unmet need for childcare in particular may act as a barrier to labour market participation. Although our analysis cannot establish a causal link between the two, unmet care need and non-employment are related, and could be a significant force for social exclusion. Policy efforts should limit the experience of unmet care needs

Ethnicity and Nationality in the Irish Labour Market. ESRI Research Series, 2018

This report presents a more in-depth analysis of discrimination in the labour market to ascertain if certain ethnic groups experience higher rates of work related discrimination than others. Using data from the Equality module of the Quarterly National Household Survey and the Labour Force Survey, this report examines if labour market outcomes differed across ethnic groups between 2002 to 2014. It also examines the likelihood of being employed rather than unemployed for different ethnicities, and the grades of employment secured

Discrimination and Inequality in Housing in Ireland. ESRI Research Series, June 2018

Access to housing is a fundamental human right protected under international conventions such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Social Charter. Adequate housing is also necessary for the achievement of other basic rights such as health and family life and is central to quality of life of adults and children. In Ireland, discrimination in the provision of housing is prohibited under the Equal Status Acts (2000- 2015). Starting from these legislative protections, in this study we consider whether certain groups in Ireland experience higher levels of discrimination in access to housing and whether they experience unequal housing outcomes. Membership of these groups is linked to other relevant characteristics, most importantly socio-economic background. Therefore, this study investigates whether equality groups experience disadvantages in housing outcomes that cannot be fully explained by their socio-economic resources. The study of housing discrimination and outcomes has become even more pressing in recent years because of the marked undersupply of housing in Ireland and problems of affordability

Technical paper on Social Inclusion and Access to Care Services in Ireland. Social Inclusion Technical Paper No 9. 14 February 2019

In this technical paper, we use the special module on access to services from the Irish SILC data for 2016 to examine differences by social risk group and social class in access to care services. These include childcare and care for people with an illness or infirmity and the services may be publicly or privately provided. We investigate the contribution of this approach to the measurement of access to services. We also examine the association between access to these services and both poverty and employment. We comment on the implications of the results for social inclusion policy and highlight some measurement issues with this approach to capturing group differences in access to services. The analysis shows that most children under the age of twelve are cared by their parents and less than one in five families are using formal childcare services. Disadvantaged families with children are more likely to report unmet needs for formal childcare, most often due to an inability to afford them. As we might expect, the need for home care services is greatest among older adults and those with a disability. However, older adults who need this service are much more likely than those with a disability to be receiving professional home care services. However the level of unmet need for professional home care remains high across all social risk groups, mostly due to the unavailability of services rather than affordability. In the case of childcare there is a stronger relationship between poverty and access to these services than in the case of access to home care services. Finally, while there is some suggestion that the lack of access to childcare services may constrain women’s labour supply, we did not find clear evidence of such constraint in the case of home care

A STUDY OF GENDER IN SENIOR CIVIL SERVICE POSITIONS IN IRELAND. ESRI RESEARCH SERIES NUMBER 66 DECEMBER 2017

Women make up the majority of those employed in the civil service but are underrepresented at the most senior grades, where key policy and operational decisions are taken. Action 8 of the Civil Service Renewal Plan commits to improving gender balance at each level, including senior grades. The present study was commissioned by a high-level steering group set up to oversee implementation of this action. It draws on a combination of administrative data, reanalysis of the Civil Service Employee Engagement Survey conducted in 2015, and in-depth work history interviews with 50 senior civil servants across four departments. In addition, in-depth interviews were conducted with staff involved in recruitment and promotion within the public service. This rich combination of data yields new insights into the processes shaping gender differences in representation at the most senior grades of the civil service and thus provides a strong evidence base to inform future policy and practice

DIVERSE NEIGHBOURHOODS: AN ANALYSIS OF THE RESIDENTIAL DISTRIBUTION OF IMMIGRANTS IN IRELAND. ESRI Survey and Statistical Report, June 2019

Rapid immigration during the economic boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s means that Ireland now has one of the highest proportions of foreign-born residents in the EU. This report investigates residential patterns among Ireland’s migrant population. Where migrants live has an important influence on their integration prospects: some commentators argue that spatial concentration makes it difficult for migrants and minorities to achieve full social integration into the host society (Massey and Mullen, 1984). The report seeks to answer the following research questions: 1. How is the migrant population distributed around Ireland and in the major cities? 2. To what extent are migrants residentially segregated from the Irish and UK-born population? 3. Has there been change over time in the level of residential segregation? 4. How can the areas in which immigrants are concentrated be characterised in terms of deprivation/affluence and the housing stock

Disability and Discrimination in Ireland: Evidence from the QNHS Equality Modules 2004, 2010, 2014. ESRI Research Series, October 2018

This report has been conducted by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) under a joint programme of research with the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission. The Research Programme on Human Rights and Equality investigates issues relating to equality and discrimination among the ten equality grounds set out in Irish legislation. Using data from the 2004, 2010 and 2014 Equality modules of the Quarterly National Household Survey this report focuses on disability and discrimination in Ireland

Technical paper on Poverty Transitions in Ireland. Social Inclusion Technical Paper No 8. 7 December 2017

In this report, we use Irish SILC data from 2004-2015 to examine poverty and deprivation transitions among various social risk groups – groups experiencing an increased risk of poverty due to non-class personal or family factors. Social risk groups include: lone parents, people with a disability, young adults, children, working-age adults and older adults. We exploit the longitudinal component of the data and primarily focus on cases where information is available for two consecutive waves. The report examines entry and exit rates into deprivation and poverty as well as the incidence of consistent poverty and deprivation (in both years). Lone parents emerge in all the analyses as the group most affected by poverty and deprivation. The relationship between poverty and deprivation is investigated and a modest overlap between the two is found. We also examine how different groups were affected at different times (pre and post-recession). While persistent deprivation increased with the onset of recession, the pattern for persistent poverty is less clear. Finally, an additional contribution of the paper is to examine the severity of attrition in the data, which leads to substantially reduced sample sizes and a slight underrepresentation of young adults and those with higher levels of education

Caring and Unpaid Work in Ireland. ESRI Research Series, 2019

Care and other unpaid work provides an important contribution to the welfare of individuals, families and society. Yet in contrast to paid work, participation in these activities and the time people spend on them is rarely measured. While the need for care is universal, labour market trends and demographic trends have changed the shape of these demands. For example, increased life expectancy increases the need for care of older people, while growing female participation in employment over the last two decades in Ireland has altered the availability of someone in the home to provide care. The division of paid and unpaid work is strongly gendered, but comparative analysis shows how the extent of gender equality in unpaid work varies across countries and is influenced, in part, by the policy configuration in place. Comparative studies suggest that Ireland is closest to the ‘modified male breadwinner’ policy regime, where there has been a shift from the traditional male breadwinner approach, particularly in terms of women’s increased participation in paid work. However supports for caring are comparatively low; combining paid work and caring remains challenging; and policies to encourage men to take on caring responsibilities are underdeveloped

Attitudes to Diversity in Ireland. ESRI Research Series, March 2018

Traditionally a country of emigration, rapid immigration during the economic boom has meant that Ireland has become considerably more diverse in terms of national and ethnic origin in recent decades. Increasing diversity can challenge existing ideas about national identity and culture and may influence attitudes to immigrants and immigration. Using evidence from the European Social Survey, this study considers whether attitudes to immigration in Ireland have changed among the Irish-born population since 2002. Exploiting a special module of the European Social Survey in 2014, it investigates Irish attitudes to Muslims and Roma immigrants. The report also examines beliefs about racial and cultural superiority among Irish people, and the quality and frequency of their contact with those of a different race/ethnic group in 2014. The results for Ireland are compared with averages from ten other West European countries to set Ireland in comparative context. Drawing on theories of social identity, ethnic group competition and social contact, the report also examines how such attitudes are formed – are they influenced by factors such as social contact, attitudes to race/ethnicity, education and financial difficulties