Anne Tynan

Evaluating the policymaking process, how actions are carried out by the various and diverse stakeholders within that process, is now considered to be as important as evaluating the outcomes from the process (Longo, 2011). Wales and Wales (2012) analysed the stakeholders involved in the Irish tax policymaking process amongst a comparative analysis of ten countries concentrating very much on stakeholder involvement in the process. The report is largely descriptive and it therefore proposed that much more detailed studies of each country would be of merit. This research seeks to contribute to that call, to not just describe but to explain and understand the process of Irish tax policymaking using a new conceptual approach that has been drawn from three contemporary, well regarded theoretical approaches to public policy process analysis, together with an historical analysis of Irish tax policy.