NESC - National Economic and Social Council

The National Economic and Social Council was established in 1973. In its early years, it undertook studies on the economic and social implications of demographic change and policy challenges in education, health, social services, energy, welfare, agriculture, rural development, housing, forestry, transport, tourism and the labour market.

The role of the Council was reshaped by the deep crisis of the 1980s and in 1986, the Council formulated an agreed strategy to escape from Ireland's vicious circle of real stagnation, rising taxes and exploding debt. That Strategy formed the basis upon which government and the social partners negotiated the Programme for National Recovery to run from 1987 to 1990. This was the first of seven social partnership programmes that ran from 1987 to 2008. In March 2009, the Council published its analysis of the current crisis Irelands Five-Part Crisis: An Integrated National Response and in October of the same year Next Steps in Addressing Ireland’s Five-Part Crisis: Combining Retrenchment with Reform.