Ireland had an estimated population of 5,281,600 as of 1 April 2023.
Conservation in the Republic of Ireland is overseen by a number of statutory and non-governmental agencies, including those with responsibility for conservation of the built environment and conservation of the natural environment in Ireland. Conservation has sometimes been a contentious issue, with debates impacting its progress since the 1960s. Concrete initiatives are sometimes driven by European Union (EU) heritage protection and environmental policies, including EU environmental law, which – as a member – the Irish government is obliged to adopt and implement.
Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, definitions of poverty, and other criteria for allocation vary within different contexts.
In Ireland and the United Kingdom, housing associations are private, non-profit making organisations that provide low-cost "social housing" for people in need of a home. Any budget surplus is used to maintain existing housing and to help finance new homes and it cannot be used for personal benefit of directors or shareholders. Although independent, they are regulated by the state and commonly receive public funding. They are now the United Kingdom's major providers of new housing for rent, while many also run shared ownership schemes to help those who cannot afford to buy a home outright.
Education in the Republic of Ireland is a primary, secondary and higher education. In recent years further education has grown immensely with 51% of working age adults having completed higher education by 2020. Growth in the economy since the 1960s has driven much of the change in the education system. For universities there are student service fees, which students are required to pay on registration, to cover examinations, insurance and registration costs.
Adamstown is a planned suburban development in western County Dublin, located circa 16 km from Dublin city centre, in the jurisdiction of South Dublin County Council. The first new town in Ireland since Shannon Town in the 1960s, the development-in-progress is based on a 220 hectare Strategic Development Zone site south of the N4 road and Lucan, west of Liffey tributary the Griffeen River and north of the Grand Canal. No date has been set for the official granting of any specific long-term official status but development is underway since 2005 and as of 2015, perhaps 4,500 of a planned population of 25,000 were resident. As per the 2022 census, the population is just above 10,000. The planned scale of development is 9,000 to 10,000 dwellings, with aligned supporting infrastructure including public transport links.
The functions of local government in the Republic of Ireland are mostly exercised by thirty-one local authorities, termed County, City, or City and County Councils. The principal decision-making body in each of the thirty-one local authorities is composed of the members of the council, elected by universal franchise in local elections every five years from multi-seat local electoral areas using the single transferable vote. Many of the authorities' statutory functions are, however, the responsibility of ministerially appointed career officials termed Chief executives. The competencies of the city and county councils include planning, transport infrastructure, sanitary services, public safety and the provision of public libraries. Each local authority sends representatives to one of three Regional Assemblies.
University College Dublin Students' Union is the students' union of University College Dublin. It is the largest students' union in Ireland.
South Dublin County Council is the authority responsible for local government in the county of South Dublin, Ireland. It is one of three local authorities created by the Local Government (Dublin) Act 1993 to succeed the former Dublin County Council before its abolition on 1 January 1994 and one of four councils in County Dublin. As a county council, it is governed by the Local Government Act 2001. The council is responsible for housing and community, roads and transportation, urban planning and development, amenity and culture, and environment. The council has 40 elected members. Elections are held every five years and are by single transferable vote. The head of the council has the title of Mayor. The county administration is headed by a Chief Executive, Daniel McLoughlin. The county town is Tallaght, with a civic centre at Monastery Road, Clondalkin. It serves a population of approximately 192,000.
Homelessness in the United Kingdom is measured and responded to in differing ways in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, but affects people living in every part of the UK's constituent countries.
A halting site is purpose-built residential accommodation for Travellers provided by a local municipal authority. The halting site has an individual bay for each family unit with a full range of services provided in a small structure on each bay.
The Garda National Immigration Bureau is a unit of the Garda Síochána, the police force of the Republic of Ireland. It was formed in May 2000, and is responsible for the enforcement of immigration law in Ireland.
Roderic O'Gorman is an Irish Green Party politician who has served as Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth since June 2020. He has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin West constituency since 2020. He previously served as Chairman of the Green Party from 2011 to 2019.
The Social Democrats are a centre-left, social-democratic political party in Ireland. Led by Holly Cairns, the party was launched on 15 July 2015 by three independent TDs, Catherine Murphy, and Róisín Shortall, and Stephen Donnelly. It promotes the Nordic model and pro-European views.
Homelessness in Ireland is an evolving social issue. During the 19th century, homelessness was a pervasive impact of the Great Famine (1845–1852). During the 20th century, homelessness in Ireland was associated with older males who may have had addiction or alcoholism issues. However, since the 1990s and into the 21st century, it has been recognised that the homeless population includes increasing numbers of women and children. Commentators have attributed the ongoing events to the post-2008 Irish economic downturn and 'subsequent fiscal adjustments', and the parallel impacts of reduced familial incomes, mortgage arrears and rental increases which followed impacts to housing supply.
Squatting in the Republic of Ireland is the occupation of unused land or derelict buildings without the permission of the owner. In the 1960s, the Dublin Housing Action Committee highlighted the housing crisis by squatting buildings. From the 1990s onwards there have been occasional political squats in Cork and Dublin such as Grangegorman, the Barricade Inn, the Bolt Hostel, Connolly Barracks, That Social Centre and James Connolly House.
Jonathan Afolabi is an Irish footballer who plays as a striker for Kortrijk in the Belgian Pro League. His previous clubs include Celtic, Dunfermline Athletic, Dundee, Ayr United, Airdrieonians and Bohemians.
Benburb Street is a street in Dublin, Ireland.
The Irish defective block crisis affects several counties within the Republic of Ireland. To date the counties most severely impacted have been County Donegal and County Mayo, with other counties displaying a currently smaller amount of affected buildings. An expert committee established in 2016 by the then Minister of Housing and Urban Renewal investigated the causes in both County Donegal and County Mayo, and concluded that the principal cause of the damage was due to the use of defective concrete blocks. Within county Donegal this was originally termed the Mica scandal in 2011, which is the point at which homes and other buildings began showing signs of cracking and decay. The term "mica scandal" arose because the expert committee had observed that defective concrete blocks within County Donegal contained excessive quantities of the mineral mica liberated within the binder. Within County Mayo the expert committee concluded that the defective blocks were caused by internal sulphate attack sourced from framboidal pyrite within the aggregate, as evidenced from both presence of framboidal pyrite and elevated sulphate content.
Protests at several locations in Ireland started in early November 2022 after the development of sites in various parts of the country as temporary refugee shelters by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY), as it attempted to accommodate the influx of 65,000 refugees during 2022. Protests have been held in East Wall, Ballymun, Drimnagh, and elsewhere in Dublin; Fermoy and Mallow in County Cork; Kill, County Kildare; Lismore, County Waterford; Mullingar, County Westmeath; Inch, County Clare; and Rosslare Harbour, County Wexford.
