Welfare Reform on the Web (July 2010): Social housing - overseas

Social housing management, governance and delivery in Ireland: ten years of reform on seven estates

M. Norris and C. O'Connell

Housing Studies, vol.25, 2010, p. 317-334

This paper examines developments in social housing management reform in the Republic of Ireland during the last decade, using qualitative evidence from two rounds of research conducted ten years apart on seven social rented estates. It sets out to: document the key changes in housing management on the estates between the first visits to them in 1997 and return visits in 2007; to examine the extent to which these changes were driven by national policy reforms and local drivers; and to assess their impact on the views of tenants and the service standards attained. The discussion of the impact of the reforms is organised into three sections covering: the changing role of the social housing officer, the entry of new actors into the social housing sector and reforms to the management of the social housing service.