Narrating Policy - Independent Paper. OPF & JSA: Ireland's Social Protection. (1/16/2017)

Narrating Policy - Independent Paper. *The Narrative of Policy Change from ‘One Parent Families’ to ‘Jobseeker’s’: Ireland’s Social Protection Policy for Lone Parents from 2006 to 2015.* - Dr Michelle Millar and Dr Rosemary Crosse (NUI Gallaway) This paper looks at the narrative of policy change from 2006 to 2015 in relation to lone parents and social protection policy in Ireland. Policy change for Irish lone parents in relation to activation was put forward in 1996 grounded in the belief that a labour market activation programme for this group will decrease levels of child poverty and provide greater returns to the exchequer. Eventually, the decision to introduce labour market activation for Irish lone parents was a condition of the Troika bailout of Ireland in terms of savings to be made and wider reform of social protection and was passed into law in 2010. Drawing on interviews with policymakers in 2007 and 2015, parliamentary debates, policy documents, press statements and newspaper articles, the policy narrative of labour market activation of lone parents in Ireland is analysed to reveal that rather than being a panacea for poverty levels the reform was about behavioural change grounded in a populist narrative of lone parents and welfare dependency. The narrative embodies themes of behavioural modification to end welfare dependency bound up in concepts of rights and responsibilities as opposed to social protection for a stigmatised group in Irish society. 'Narrating Policy: Exploring Narrative in Policy and Policy Analysis' was a one-day symposium held at the University of Leeds, organised by James Beresford and Ashley R. Bullard, doctoral researchers in the School of Sociology and Social Policy. The day was dedicated to the various and variegated ways narrative and narrative analysis informs policy and policy analysis. The symposium was sponsored by the Leeds Social Science Institution and the Sociology and Social Policy’s Policy Research Cluster.

Dr Michelle Millar

1/16/2017 11:35:08 AM