ABSTRACT
Despite the severe recession and fiscal crisis that began in 2008, Ireland remains a wealthy country, albeit one that is experiencing outflows of citizen and noncitizen workers rather than the dramatic inflows that characterized the boom. As the second "most globalized economy" in the world after Hong Kong, Ireland is deeply immersed in complex global processes involving the movement of capital, ideas, goods and labor. Ireland is relying on its openness to these processes to extricate itself from its current situation. The emphasis on the process aspect of capability links the two areas of disadvantage everyone have explored in this chapter: the non-European Economic Area (EEA) workers not being afforded the same employment opportunities as EEA workers and the coercive barriers to permanent residency faced by workers on work permits and asylum seekers. The Carer's Allowance is only one example of a set of social welfare policies that discourage women from working outside the home.
