Regulatory Reform in Ireland

Regulatory reform in Ireland began later than in many countries, but is now moving ahead on a broad front. Following Ireland's remarkable economic performance in the 1990s, regulatory reform is helping to manage the consequences of fast growth and to sustain growth into the future. Reform is opening up important infrastructure and policy bottlenecks to further growth, promoting efficiency improvements that can help manage inflation, and establishing a more competitive and flexible economy that can innovate, adapt and prosper as the sources of its current prosperity change. Yet the reform agenda is still long. Bottlenecks in physical infrastructure are constraining growth, as are labour shortages, and public sector capacities. Weak competition in key sectors is a risk to future performance. While recognising the substantial progress made in recent years, this report calls for a more coherent and determined approach to regulatory reform. This review presents an integrated assessment of regulatory reform in framework areas such as the quality of the public sector, competition policy and enforcement, and market openness. It also contains chapters on telecommunications, electricity, gas, pharmacies and legal services, and an assessment of the macroeconomic context for reform. The policy recommendations present a balanced plan of action for both short and longer term based on best international regulatory practices. [OECD website]Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Staff is the author of 'Regulatory Reform in Ireland' with ISBN 9789264187047 and ISBN 9264187049.