ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the structures through which public policy is made, implemented and monitored and discusses the crucial role that interest groups play when it comes to national policy making within the Irish state. It assesses the influence of sectional groups in relation to social partnership and economic policy making in general. The chapter shows that while interest groups are a central part of the policy-making process, governments ultimately make the final decisions. TDs have access to insider information, can generate publicity, may be able to influence the state bureaucracy, and are in a position to put pressure on governments and individual ministers by tabling parliamentary questions. Most lobbyists now working in Ireland have long experience of how the political and administrative system works; they include former government press secretaries, former officials of all the major parties, some ex-TDs and a host of former journalists.
