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Shared Island Research: Society and Social Policy
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Research Partner – Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)
Publication Date – April 2026
This report examines disability prevalence across Ireland and Northern Ireland and provides the first all-island analysis of disability using census data from both jurisdictions, offering new insights into differences in prevalence, severity and key drivers. The findings show that overall disability rates among those aged 20–69 are broadly similar, but severity is higher in Northern Ireland. The research also highlights differences by age, education and geography, as well as the role of health conditions and other socio-economic factors.
Read ‘How do disability rates differ across the island of Ireland’ and watch the launch webinar.
Research Partner – Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)
Publication Date – April 2025
As part of the ‘Research on a Shared Island’ conference in April 2025, the Taoiseach launched an overarching report synthesising key findings from the first phase of the joint ESRI-Department of the Taoiseach Shared Island research programme. The report brings out interlinkages between 15 previous research publications, and highlights and reflects on implications for policy learning for the island in the future. It also reflects on cross-border cooperation within the framework of the Good Friday Agreement, and concludes that there are advantages to substantially upscaling North-South cooperation in existing strategic areas, as well as extending the remit of cooperation to include new strategic areas such as skills provision, foreign direct investment, labour market access and energy security.
Research Partner – Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)
Publication Date – January 2025
This research compares child poverty in Ireland and Northern Ireland. It finds that throughout 2004-2023, child income poverty levels were somewhat higher in Northern Ireland, while child material deprivation rates were higher in Ireland for most of the period examined (2010-2023), and at a comparable level in 2023. The report highlights the range of welfare, educational, and labour market supports that impact and are needed to address child poverty in both jurisdictions.
Read ‘Child poverty on the island of Ireland’ and watch the launch webinar.
Research Partner – Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)
Publication Date – October 2024
Drawing on 2019 data, this research identifies the drivers of income inequality in Ireland and Northern Ireland, and finds that differences in inequality in market income are driven by two counteracting forces. The younger and more highly educated population of Ireland results in lower income inequality as there are relatively fewer people with no earnings. However, the higher and more unequal wages paid to workers in Ireland result in relatively higher market income inequality, all else equal. Differences in the tax-benefit system also influence the distribution of disposable income. The Irish tax system is more progressive and reduces income inequality more than the Northern Irish tax system. However, the level and coverage of means-tested benefits in Ireland is lower than Northern Ireland, and so reduces inequality less than the Northern Irish system. The combination of these two opposing effects results in similar overall levels of redistribution by the Irish and Northern Irish tax-benefit systems taken as a whole.
Read 'Drivers of income inequality in Ireland and Northern Ireland' and watch the launch webinar.
Research Partner – Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)
Publication Date – April 2024
This report uses stakeholder consultation and analysis of labour force survey data to identify the barriers and opportunities to women’s participation in the labour market in Ireland and Northern Ireland. In both jurisdictions, it explores the impact of policies, education, demographic characteristics, household types, sectors, and attitudes on the participation and conditions of women and men in the labour market. The report’s key findings include that the gendered nature of care responsibilities poses challenges for women’s access to high-quality employment, and is a common feature in both jurisdictions.
Read 'Gender and labour market Inclusion on the island of Ireland' and view the slides from the launch.
Research Partner – Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)
Publication Date – January 2024
This report compares how differences across the housing markets, in key costs of production, the regulatory environment and economic dynamics, have impacted the supply of housing in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England. The research suggests that across all housing markets, but particularly in the Irish case, the traditional financial sector does not appear to be able to provide the requisite amount of credit for the level of housing activity which has been deemed necessary to meet the underlying structural demand for housing. Consequently, increased Government investment in the form of expanding the level of social and affordable housing stock available emerges as a key factor across all markets.
Read 'Contrasting housing supply in Ireland, Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom' and view the slides from the launch.
Research Partner – Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)
Publication Date – November 2023
This research draws on multiple sources of high-quality, comparative social survey data to explore the development of social and political attitudes on the island of Ireland, North and South. The report compares attitudes such as trust in institutions and trust in other people; attitudes to inequality; and political attitudes (specifically: satisfaction with democracy; political voice; and expectations for the future). The report identifies that people’s satisfaction with democracy, trust in political, judicial and media institutions, and the feeling that their voice counts in politics was generally higher in Ireland compared to Northern Ireland, both at the start of this century and in more recent years.
Read ‘Changing social and political attitudes in Ireland and Northern Ireland’ and watch the launch webinar.
Research Partner – Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)
Publication Date – March 2023
This report explores migrant integration in Ireland and Northern Ireland, using information from national and international surveys as well as a stakeholder consultation event. It examines how migrants are faring in employment and education, as well as attitudes towards migration in Ireland and Northern Ireland and migrants’ experiences of cross-border travel since Brexit. Key findings include that, in both jurisdictions, most migrant groups are highly skilled and more likely to have third-level qualifications than the native-born population, though the skills profile of migrants is generally higher in Ireland than in Northern Ireland.
Read ‘Comparing migrant integration in Ireland and Northern Ireland’, download the slides from the report launch event and watch a highlights video of the launch.
Research Partner – National Economic and Social Council (NESC)
Publication Date – October 2022
As part of its wider research work on Shared Island, the NESC undertook a place-based inquiry in the North West to explore cohesion and collaboration. The focus was on the lived experience of people in the border areas, with the aim of exploring two integrated thematic issues – sustainability and connectivity. To gain a more in-depth understanding of the issues and elements of cooperation in the North West, four online focus groups were held on: Good Jobs; Green Transformation; Poverty and Mental Health; and Mechanisms for Co-operation, with participation from approximately 60 individuals from across a range of civic, public, community/voluntary, and business sector organisations.
Read ‘Exploring Shared Opportunities in the North West: Findings from Focus Groups’.
Research Partner – National Economic and Social Council (NESC)
Publication Date – April 2022
The NESC, at the request of the Department of the Taoiseach, undertook a programme of research in 2021 to produce a comprehensive report on Shared Island issues, to inform the development of the Shared Island Initiative as a whole of Government priority. The report makes three overarching conclusions:
- First, there is very significant support, in practice, for an all-island approach to key economic, social, environmental, and wellbeing challenges.
- Second, climate change and biodiversity loss provide a clear and urgent platform for ambitious all-island action and collaboration.
- Third, the factors which are shaping current and future collaboration are a shared agenda, resources, political certainty and support, legislative and regulatory coherence, and collaborative projects.
The report also makes specific recommendations across five key areas in relation to the economy and investment, social policy, climate and biodiversity, wellbeing measurement and data co-ordination.
Read 'Shared Island Shared Opportunity: NESC Comprehensive Report' and watch the report launch event.
Research Partner – National Economic and Social Council (NESC)
Publication Date – December 2021
The NESC prepared a secretariat paper on sharing lessons in combatting poverty on the island of Ireland, as part of its wider work on Shared Island on behalf of the Department of the Taoiseach. The report finds that poverty is a concern both North and South, and explores opportunities to share knowledge and lessons which work towards the reduction of poverty across the island.
Research Partner – National Economic and Social Council (NESC)
Publication Date – March 2021
This Secretariat Paper was produced as part of the NESC’s wider research on Shared Island, on behalf of the Department of the Taoiseach. It identifies the ‘good jobs’ agenda as a concerted policy drive to improve the quality and productivity of work and the experiences, incomes and standard of living of workers. The paper draws on stakeholder interviews and finds that there is strong support for an all-island approach to ‘good-jobs’, highlighting the potential benefits of using the ‘good jobs’ framework as a basis for exploring shared problems and challenges in both Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Read ‘Shared Island: Projects, Progress & Policy – The Good-Jobs Agenda’.
Research Partner – National Economic and Social Council (NESC)
Publication Date – February 2021
The NESC, at the request of the Department of the Taoiseach, undertook a programme of research in 2021 to produce a comprehensive report on Shared Island issues, to inform the development of the Shared Island Initiative as a whole of Government priority. At the outset, the NESC published a scoping paper setting out its proposed approach to this work.
Research Partner – Irish Research Council (IRC)
Year of Award – 2021
This research project was commissioned under the Shared Island strand of the New Foundations Scheme, administered by the IRC (now Research Ireland). It provided baseline data on how people on the island of Ireland understand hate crime, as well as their attitudes to minority communities. The project also brought together those working in the sector North and South to leverage the findings of the research, to map priorities and strategies for the future.
Read more about this research project on the Research Ireland Awards Database.