The Trouble with Northern Ireland

Public bodies operating at every level in Ireland are now more numerous than ever before. There is one for every 5000 people. Many are hugely significant in their impact on people's everyday lives, the scale of expenditure they control and their sheer size as public employers. This book looks at how such bodies work. The authors identify issues of transparency, accountability and freedom from political/elite patronage. The book shows: that such bodies have developed in an ad hoc way; many important bodies are excluded from measures - such as the Freedom of Information Act - of accountability; and more than 5000 appointments are made on the basis of political allegiance rather than merit.