Ireland’s COVID19 Crisis Response: Perspectives from Social Science

On-line Conference Announcement

The first case of Covid-19 was observed in Ireland on February 29th. In the past month, we have had  unprecedented change in every aspect of Irish society. The response to the pandemic progressed from warnings to school and pub closures, to a comprehensive shut down of non-essential workplaces, and strong guidelines on physical distancing, hygiene, and travel. 

It is urgent to understand how people are responding to these changes. Adherence to physical distancing and protective health behaviours may be vital in delaying the transmission of the virus and allowing the health system to adapt. Understanding how to promote such adherence is a key topic of research for our community. Understanding the short-run impacts on mental and physical health is a key priority, as is understanding how the impacts of the restrictions are spread across groups of people and different types of businesses. 

In the longer term, the Covid-19 pandemic will leave a wide range of public policy challenges in its wake. It would be important to anticipate now what those challenges are likely to be and to explore how research can contribute to finding solutions. It is crucial to understand the implications of different scenarios for inequality, education systems, labour markets, public administration, financial systems, transport, climate change, just to name a few. It is vital that we contribute to this process as scholars and researchers with different areas of expertise. 

With these challenges in mind, we are launching a series of Covid19 crisis policy response events. The first will take place Friday April 17th and the second will take place Friday April 24th

The April 17th conference will take place  on-line via Zoom from 10:00 -13:00.  There will be 6 sessions with 3 parallel sessions in two time slots (10:00 am to 11.20am and 11.40am to 1:00pm).  

Please choose ONE panel from session 1 and/or ONE panel from session 2 that you would like to attend and register at the corresponding link provided to that particular panel.

On Thursday evening, you will be sent a Zoom link for your chosen session.

Programme April 17th 

We will endeavour to make recordings of all sessions available after the conference


Session 1 – 10:00 – 11:20

A.The Macroeconomy of Ireland Post Covid-19

Sharon Donnery, Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Ireland

Beata Javorcik, Chief Economist, ERBD.

Michael McMahon, Professor of Macroeconomics, University of Oxford. 

Stephen Kinsella, University of Limerick (Chair)

To register for his panel please click here

B. Impact of School Closures on Educational Inequalities

Orla Doyle, UCD (Chair) “Covid-19: Exacerbating Educational Inequalities?”

Noel Kelly, Tusla, Director of Educational Welfare Systems, TUSLA

Margaret Hughes, Principal of OLI Junior School, Darndale

Aoife Breen, Home School Liaison Coordinator, Darndale  

To register for his panel please click here

C. State Response to Covid-19 Crisis

Philip O’Connell, UCD (Chair)

Robert Watt, DPER

John McKeown, DEASP

Michelle Norris, UCD

To register for his panel please click here

Session 2 – 11:40 – 13:00

A. Invisibility and Violence: Gendered issues in a Covid 19 world

Orla O’Connor, NWCI

Sarah Benson, CEO Women’s Aid

Pat O’Connor UL/UCD (Chair, Organiser)

 To register for his panel please click here

B. How Covid19 challenges and provides opportunities for Ireland’s small open economy model

Sean O’Riain, MU, Chair

David Skilling, Landfall consulting

Shana Cohen, TASC

To register for his panel please click here

C. Ending the lockdown—the view from the city

Alice Charles, World Economic Forum

Catriona Cahill, Limerick Chamber

Philip Lawton, Trinity College Dublin

Stephen Kinsella, University of Limerick (Chair)

To register for his panel please click here

Registration for this event will close at 18:00 Thursday April 16th

The conference is organised by Liam Delaney (UCD), Orla Doyle (UCD), Stephen Kinsella (UL) and Philip O’Connell (UCD)

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