Public Policy Challenges in Northern Ireland and Ireland: Understanding executive relations and the role of public administration in different institutional settings

This panel brought together several public administration research collaborations that cover themes in – politico-administrative relations, policy implementation, and trust/distrust in executive relations at different levels of governance.

The four papers consider contemporary policy challenges in Northern Ireland and Ireland during times of crisis and reform.

Bernadette Connaughton was an author/presenter in two of the papers:

1. A Slow-Burning Crisis: Executive Relations, Policy Failure, and the Normalisation of Distrust in Northern Ireland’s ‘Cash for Ash’ Fiasco with Charis Rice, Jenny Radcliffe and Ian Somerville.

2. Policy advisory systems and the Covid Crisis: Understanding the relational dynamics of expert advisory committees within different institutional settings with Katarína Staroňová and Róbert Martin Hudec (Comenius University Bratislava).