The Vital Role of Ideas in Industrial Policy Changes in Ireland During the 1980s

Employing a discursive institutionalist approach in the form of the critical juncture theory (CJT), this paper examines the nature of the changes to Irish industrial policy in the mid 1980s, a time when the country went through one of its worst economic crises. Did these policy changes, ushered in by the Telesis Report of 1982, constitute a transformation in industrial policy, or a continuation of a previously established policy pathway, and if so why? To answer this question the paper explores the roles played by various change agents, and their ideas, in altering the industrial policy that had been established during the 1950s, when the country first opened up to foreign trade and investment. The findings ultimately help explain why Irish industrial policy did not undergo a radical transformation during the 1980s.