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The objective of this paper is to inform a critical analysis of how the media portray family support in Ireland. Findings of a content analysis carried out on national and regional Irish newspapers between 2014 and 2017 are presented which describe communication about family support services provided by Tusla-Child and Family Agency. Results show that even though child protection was not used as a specific search term, news items on the Child and Family Agency and family support were usually focused on child protection and children in care. Results also show that family support activities are reported more positively in local papers compared to national papers. In the discussion, we argue that these findings are important as the media plays an important role in how the public understand, view, and engage with integrated child protection and welfare systems. We consider the implications of the research and advocate working with the media to inform their interpretation and understanding of family support. We suggest this is important as the manner in which the media communicate and frame family support as part of the overall child protection and welfare system is one of the main influences on public understandings and awareness of preventative family support and child welfare services.

It has been argued that social work is the only profession that is based on a sociolegal expertise. In this article we suggest that this expertise differentiates social work from related social professions; requiring advanced sociolegal practice skills and a particular approach to sociolegal education. In a sociolegal environment, social workers and legal professionals practice in a space between service user and their wider environment. We demonstrate the importance of social work students developing competence in the use of the law and how a socioecological model can help students develop their sociolegal practice. We draw from our experience of the Irish child welfare and protection context and argue that specialist sociolegal skills education is required to inform practice across domains.

This paper is based on findings from an Irish study of permanence and stability outcomes for children in long-term care which involved biographical narrative interviews with 27 children, young people, parents and foster carers. The study concluded that power and power relations featured significantly in the narratives of our interviewees. To advance guidance for practice, this paper aims to build on the findings of the study reported with an emphasis on the theorisation of power and power relations to inform practice. To do this, we use illustrative quotes from children, young people and their families to demonstrate how power markedly affected their experiences. The findings are considered in the context of an adapted version of Bronfenbrenner's ecological model with a focus on the interaction between the social work system and individual social workers (exo system) the young person and their wider family (micro-meso system) as perceived by the latter. The wider impact of policy (macro system) and transitions and experiences over time (chrono system) are considered in the context of this interaction. In the discussion, the need for more explicit studies of power and power relations within the context of an ecological model to capture the complexity of layers and interactions of each child's social system is highlighted. The contribution and limitation of the research is discussed. We end with a commentary about the importance of promoting an increased voice for children and young people in the development and improvement of public child welfare services.

This article explores the factors that influenced team leader decision-making processes about pathways for duty/intake referrals in one TUSLA region in the Republic of Ireland. It provides an overview of theories relating to decision making focused on systems, risk, relationships and processes. An ecological framework is presented as the conceptual frame. The study was carried out in one region of the Republic of Ireland through a partnership research arrangement between Tusla and the local university social work programme. It involved a quantitative and qualitative research approach. The quantitative phase of the study comprised 15 participants. The qualitative phase of the study consisted of seven respondents. All respondents were duty/intake team leaders. The findings make an important contribution to existing understandings and theories relating to decision making in the Republic of Ireland and internationally. They illustrate that decision-making processes were influenced more by organisational factors than individual factors or macro factors. The discussion considers how this study can critically add to existing international literature relating to decision making at the point of first contact in child protection and welfare. In particular, it shows the value of taking an ecological approach to understanding decision making that can provide for a critical understanding of the complex factors, especially organisational (exo level), that impact on decision making at the front line. It also highlights why a diversity of aspects of decision-making influences are important to consider with a constant focus on the child and family at the centre, in line with current policy and practice perspectives.

This article is based on a study of two early years services in the West of Ireland which was attended mostly by asylum seekers. Using a sample of the findings for illustration, we discuss how the study captured an example of culturally sensitive practice that demonstrated an ability to counteract some of the negative effects of being an asylum seeker through the particular philosophy and practice model. Eight specific guidance points for practice are drawn out and considered within the context of the ecological model [Bronfenbrenner, U., & Morris, P. (2006). The bioecological model of human development. In R. M. Lerner, W. Damon, & R. M. S. Lerner (Eds.), "Handbook of child Psychology, Vol. 1: Theoretical models of human development." Hoboken, NJ: Wiley]. We argue that a duality of attention to the agency--recognising the importance of the actions of each individual and to structure--recognising the inherent power differences, structural inequality, social injustice and prejudice--is essential. We show the importance of agency and of an ecological framework. We make the case for an approach to "cultural competence" that emphasises the importance of interactions at the micro level. While we are focused in this paper on the early years sector, there is also wider applicability from this specific study to general practice in the field of social care and social work with diverse populations.

This article considers how adoption may develop as viable option for permanency planning for children in care in Ireland following the Constitutional Referendum in 2012 on Children's Rights. In order to be prepared to consider how adoption can be developed as a viable alternative to long term care, we need to focus on the specific context of Ireland and the learning from elsewhere. The themes that are central to understanding the Irish context are: history of adoption in Ireland; impact of a dominance of a familist ideology underpinned by the Irish Constitution's Article 41 and 42 and the nature of Irish child and family law. With reference to learning from other jurisdictions, we have selected three inter-related themes: learning from the development of adoption as a permanency option; critical overview of concurrency planning and a consideration of open adoption. This article is intended to be informative and exploratory in recognition that this theme is likely to evolve over a number of years within the system in Ireland. The article highlights the extent to which the local socio-cultural and historical context influences policy development and should have resonance for both for readers in Ireland and other jurisdictions experiencing similar reforms.

This article draws on qualitative evidence from an evaluation of the "Greater Tomorrow" Crèche and Ballyhaunis Community Preschool in Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo, Ireland in 2016. The article focuses on the approach to practice and the underlying ethos of these two services, reflecting a clearly articulated respect for diversity and the privileging of relationships with families by the practitioners and management team. We argue for the significance of early years services in offsetting risk factors associated with adverse childhood experiences and environments, reflecting international research evidence for the potential benefits of high-quality early childhood education and care. The practice orientation within the settings operationalises the national quality and curriculum frameworks of Aistear and Síolta in foregrounding the concepts of identity and belonging, well-being, and partnership with families in daily practice. The services under study were established during a period of rapid social and cultural change in Ireland; heightened economic activity beginning in the mid-1990s was a catalyst for increasing female employment and inward migration. This article argues that in such a context, these services responded to the needs of the uniquely diverse community they serve, contributed to children's early learning and development, and provided material and emotional supports to children and parents.

Disabled children experience unique vulnerabilities in the context of child protection and welfare services. Current research alludes to strong concerns about social inequality, professional responses, judgement, knowledge and awareness limitations, and practical constraints. This article presents a focused commentary on the literature pertaining to child protection and disabled children. It does so through the lens of a broad affirmative non-tragedy approach. Within this, consideration is given to the distinct experience of disabled children within the broader child protection and welfare system, including experiences of being in care and of leaving care. The matter of children's rights is explicitly addressed with a particular focus on the right for children to have their voices heard. Core themes are drawn from the body of material, which are then used to inform a discussion on the key points of learning for practitioners and policy makers moving forward. The article concludes with the recognition that, to date the matter of supporting disabled children and their families within the child protection and welfare context remains both critical and broadly neglected. It proposes that the affirmative non-tragedy model offers an effective theoretical lens to progress an assertive children's rights approach within the child protection and welfare context.

The aim of this paper is to report on the evaluation of two standardised training programmes provided by the statutory children and family service in the Republic of Ireland in 2012. This involved an evaluation of Children First Basic Level Training, which was delivered to all staff employed in the statutory services, and Keeping Safe, Basic Level Training, which was delivered externally to those working with children and families in voluntary and community services. The objectives of this review were: to determine the perceived need of all participants on both training programmes; to establish the relevance of the training programmes "vis-à-vis" the participants work practice; to evaluate whether both training programmes have met their stated aims; and to establish the necessary components of a training programme to inform future development. This retrospective review was conducted using mixed methods. The findings show that, in the main, the needs of the respondents were met by the training. Most respondents agreed that the training met its aims and was relevant. Valuable suggestions were made regarding development for the future. However, due to an unexpectedly low response rate to the research, the low sample size has meant that we cannot deduce that the mostly positive results are representative of participants in the training programmes as a whole. However, while not a reliable representation of the whole trainee population, the findings are nonetheless illustrative and instructive as a guide within this complex and important field for the development of future training. It is concluded that given the ongoing challenge of protecting children from abuse and neglect, the findings will inform a renewed commitment to ongoing development of generic training as well as the development of more advanced methods of evaluation, and increased engagement of training participants in the research process.

Summary: In this first na tional survey of public hospitals in The Republic of Ireland, we found fracture liaison services (FLS) to be heterogeneous, limited in many cases and poorly supported. A national strategy is urgently needed to support the implementation and operation of an FLS, and thus help reduce the burden of fragility fractures for patients and the healthcare system. Introduction: Fragility/low-trauma fractures are a global concern, whose incidence is rising as the population ages. Many are preventable, and people with a prior fragility fracture are at particularly high risk of further fractures. This patient group is the target of the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) Capture the Fracture campaign, advocating global adoption of fracture liaison services (FLS), with the aim of preventing secondary fragility fractures. We wished to determine the current availability and standards of an FLS in Ireland, ahead of the launch of a National FLS database. Methods: We devised a questionnaire encompassing the thirteen IOF standards for an FLS and asked all 16 public hospitals with an orthopaedic trauma unit in Ireland, to complete for the calendar year 2019 in patients aged ≥ 50 years. Results: All sites returned the questionnaire, i.e. 100% response rate. Nine hospitals stated that they have an FLS, additionally one non-trauma hospital running a FLS responded, and were included. These 10 FLS had identified and managed 3444 non-hip fractures in the year 2019. This figure represents 19% of the expected non-hip fragility fracture numbers occurring annually in Ireland. Implementation of the IOF standards was very variable. All sites reported being inadequately resourced to provide a high-quality service necessary to be effective. Conclusion: The existence and functioning of FLS in Ireland are heterogeneous and suboptimal. A national policy to support the implementation of this programme in line with international standards of patient care is urgently needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to outline a systemic lifecycle approach to social policy practice in social work. Evidence from the field of parenting and child welfare within an Irish context will be used for illustration. We avail of the work of Nancy Fraser to provide the theoretical framework. Drawing from approaches used mostly in public policy education, we demonstrate how social workers can engage at different stages of that policy lifecycle. In the discussion, we outline possibilities for and challenges to embedding social policy practice in social work education by reflecting on the processes of mediating between recognition, redistribution and representation. We argue that social policy practice should be a constant in social work. This approach should favour parity of participation and collaborative leadership from social work with regard to networking and promotion of different levels of participation with multiple 'public spheres'. We conclude that the development of social policy practice work as a constant in social work will lead to greater ability to mediate between policies and the individuals affected by them. This would, we believe, enhance greatly the potential for social work to achieve its laudable but still illusory aims of promoting social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reports on an evaluation of a locally designed training programme, 'Raising awareness of the impact of parental mental illness on children and families', in one region of the Republic of Ireland. The evaluation focused on identifying possible changes, following the training, in professionals' knowledge and awareness of severe and enduring mental illnesses and its impact on the family; their self-rated practice skills and attitude when working with individuals experiencing a mental illness; and their level of engagement in family focused practice. A quantitative methodology was employed with a repeated measures approach in an online questionnaire. Respondents were invited to complete the questionnaire pre-training, post-training and at a 6-week follow-up phase. Nine respondents completed the questionnaires at three time periods. Following training, professionals reported an increase in their knowledge and awareness of mental illness and the impact of parental mental illness on children and families. Respondents acknowledged difficulties in the context of legislation and national policies relating to mental health. The importance of training for professionals working outside of adult mental health services was highlighted along with recommendations for the future development of training emerged from the study. Aligned with previous research, there is a need for inter-agency collaboration and further development of awareness and skills development in relation to family focussed practice with families where a parent has a mental illness. Accessible training related to mental health for practitioners supporting children and families outside of core mental health settings should be provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on qualitative findings on how young people in long-term foster care in Ireland interpret permanence and stability. We focus principally on subjective and relational permanence, emphasising the significance of these concepts for social work, while extending some conceptual approaches to permanence. Importantly, findings from this study highlight conceptual gaps in how permanence and stability are conceptualised in research and we outline an approach which more fully embraces the multi-dimensionality of young people's life experiences and emotions. Recent studies underline that permanence encompasses several elements (e.g. ecological, legal). However, this paper extends current research in illustrating how Irish young people in foster care experience permanence and stability every day, and how these experiences embrace discursive, emotional and temporal dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically examines the relationship between statutory family support and child protection using the case study of Ireland. It builds on the work of Devaney and McGregor (2017) to offer an additional contribution to existing frameworks for practice through adapting the Hardiker Exton and Barker (1991) model of prevention. Using evidence from current Irish developments, the case for moving away from linear and simplistic differentiation of family support and child protection is made. Evidence from three main sources in Ireland is presented to develop the argument. This evidence includes the Child Care Law Reporting project (Coulter, 2015, 2018); a recent evaluation of a family support practice model called Meitheal (Rodriguez Cassidy and Devaney, 2018) and recent findings about public awareness of family support (McGregor and NicGabhainn, 2018). We argue that special attention should be paid to families "in the middle" who are in need of both support and protection and propose an adapted version of Hardiker et al. model to aid in this work. We identify what should happen at different levels for macrostructural to micropractice levels. We conclude that the learning from the Irish case study can be applied to an international context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the factors that influenced team leader decision-making processes about pathways for duty/intake referrals in one TUSLA region in the Republic of Ireland. It provides an overview of theories relating to decision making focused on systems, risk, relationships and processes. An ecological framework is presented as the conceptual frame. The study was carried out in one region of the Republic of Ireland through a partnership research arrangement between Tusla and the local university social work programme. It involved a quantitative and qualitative research approach. The quantitative phase of the study comprised 15 participants. The qualitative phase of the study consisted of seven respondents. All respondents were duty/intake team leaders. The findings make an important contribution to existing understandings and theories relating to decision making in the Republic of Ireland and internationally. They illustrate that decision-making processes were influenced more by organisational factors than individual factors or macro factors. The discussion considers how this study can critically add to existing international literature relating to decision making at the point of first contact in child protection and welfare. In particular, it shows the value of taking an ecological approach to understanding decision making that can provide for a critical understanding of the complex factors, especially organisational (exo level), that impact on decision making at the front line. It also highlights why a diversity of aspects of decision-making influences are important to consider with a constant focus on the child and family at the centre, in line with current policy and practice perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is a micro-level examination of the role and function of cooperative research centers (CRCs) in entrepreneurial universities from a principal investigator (PI) perspective. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses a qualitative research design and is based on 38 semi-structured interviews with PIs who are publicly funded at the Centre for Research in Medical Devices (CÚRAM) based in Ireland. CÚRAM has a multiple mission focus of supporting scientific excellence, industry engagement, educational and public engagement that supports the Irish medical device sector. Findings: The findings reveal that CRCs' role and function at the micro level constitute a necessary and functional organization architecture that supports PIs who are required to meet multiple scientific, commercialization, educational and public engagement objectives. Specifically, from the micro-level PI perspective, the role and function of CRCs focus on research quality enhancement, brokerage, networks and collaborations, addressing research impact and resource enhancement and appropriation. Practical implications: This research emphasizes the importance and necessity for the creation of CRCs as part of the entrepreneurial architecture of entrepreneurial universities that provides the necessary appropriate local environmental conditions and enhanced supports to enable micro-level actors to fulfill multiple mission objectives with respect to research excellence, industry, educational and public engagement and impact. Originality/value: This study contributes to the limited literature on new institutional configurations that support entrepreneurship and addresses recent calls for further research. In taking a micro-level focus, the authors identify the role and function of CRCs from a PI perspective in an entrepreneurial university setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The topic of institutionalisation and child welfare in Ireland has garnered increasing national and international public and scholarly attention over the past twenty years. This is not an Irish phenomenon. Governments internationally have utilised commissions to investigate a range of historical abuses against children and young adults, many in an institutional setting (see Age of Inquiry, ). One of the most recent shocking historical revelations opens the paper – the discovery of the burial of 796 children in a septic tank in a mother and baby home in Tuam, Co. Galway (). Following this, the historical approach – a history of the present – is explained. A number of questions about the past use of institutions in Ireland are posed to help illuminate the importance of this issue to the present day. We consider the nature of institutionalisation and the development of law and policy prior to and after the Second World War. Our questions lead us to a discussion of three themes: the role of economics; parentage and gender; and the relationship between the State and the Church. We conclude with a commentary on why such interrogation of institutional care is important in the present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on informal social support and coping amongst parents living in a Direct Provision (DP) reception centre in the rural west of Ireland. Since 2000, asylum seekers in Ireland are subject to DP where the state provides accommodation and food to asylum seeking families, and a small supplementary allowance. Despite calls for its abandonment and that it constitutes 'citizenship based discrimination', DP features prominently in Irish policy on asylum seeking. Drawing on qualitative interview materials from an evaluation of childcare services in one asylum seeker reception centre, we argue that children living in DP are frequently exposed to risky behaviours, and that the DP system adversely affects children's resilience, stifling their educational, emotional and social development. In Ireland, supports for families and children living in DP are relatively weak, and despite protests for enhancing asylum seekers' rights in housing and employment, asylum seekers interviewed for this study feel abandoned by the state. Instead, they rely heavily on local services for emotional and financial supports to cope with living conditions in DP. The paper argues for a culturally responsive approach to policy-making that is grounded in human rights and family support which recognizes the importance of community services in providing emotional and practical supports to parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a qualitative study of outcomes for permanence and stability for children in long-term care in Ireland. The aim of this research was to inform social work practitioners on how to enhance stability and permanence for children and to inform decision making and report writing for children in care. The research was designed and delivered in partnership with social work practitioners in the relevant areas. Drawing from the significant literature on this area the main factors impacting on permanence and stability are summarised and presented in terms of intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Biographical narrative interviews were conducted with twenty-seven participants (children and young people, parents and foster parents). This paper reports how, amongst a complex array of findings, three themes most linked to affect permanence and stability were found to be Relationships, Communication and Social Support. Underpinning these, the importance of Continuity was significant. Based on these findings, recommendations and practice guidance for social workers were developed in partnership with the Irish statutory Child and Family Agency and are summarised in the Conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers how adoption may develop as viable option for permanency planning for children in care in Ireland following the Constitutional Referendum in 2012 on Children's Rights. In order to be prepared to consider how adoption can be developed as a viable alternative to long term care, we need to focus on the specific context of Ireland and the learning from elsewhere. The themes that are central to understanding the Irish context are: history of adoption in Ireland; impact of a dominance of a familist ideology underpinned by the Irish Constitution's Article 41 and 42 and the nature of Irish child and family law. With reference to learning from other jurisdictions, we have selected three interrelated themes: learning from the development of adoption as a permanency option; critical overview of concurrency planning and a consideration of open adoption. This article is intended to be informative and exploratory in recognition that this theme is likely to evolve over a number of years within the system in Ireland. The article highlights the extent to which the local socio-cultural and historical context influences policy development and should have resonance for both for readers in Ireland and other jurisdictions experiencing similar reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on the outcomes of a research study on the early implementation of a strengths-based family-centred model of practice in Ireland known as the Meitheal model. The paper aims to translate the key messages from this research to practice with families involved in the child welfare system. This is done by highlighting the process by which intervention focused on support and prevention using a strengths perspective has begun to occur in practice. Using data collected from stakeholders involved in the implementation of the practice model, the research provides insight into the opportunities and challenges involved at macro and micro-levels of practice. The discussion links this development in Ireland to the wider international context, using three broad frameworks informed by the ecological model; a framework for determining thresholds in children’s services and the continuum of intervention between support and protection to inform system change aimed at enhancing family support and better outcomes for children and families. Underpinning this is an emphasis on how Meitheal as a strengths-based approach can influence the achievement of the principles of early intervention, prevention and family support in the child welfare system in Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Disabled children experience unique vulnerabilities in the context of child protection and welfare services. Current research alludes to strong concerns about social inequality, professional responses, judgement, knowledge and awareness limitations and practical constraints. This article presents a focused commentary on the literature pertaining to child protection and disabled children. It does so through the lens of a broad affirmative non-tragedy approach. Within this, consideration is given to the distinct experience of disabled children within the broader child protection and welfare system, including experiences of being in care and of leaving care. The matter of children's rights is explicitly addressed with a particular focus on the right for children to have their voices heard. Core themes are drawn from the body of material, which are then used to inform a discussion on the key points of learning for practitioners and policy makers moving forward. The article concludes with the recognition that, to date the matter of supporting disabled children and their families within the child protection and welfare context remains both critical and broadly neglected. It proposes that the affirmative non-tragedy model offers an effective theoretical lens to progress an assertive children's rights approach within the child protection and welfare context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws on qualitative evidence from an evaluation of the "Greater Tomorrow" Crèche and Ballyhaunis Community Preschool in Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo, Ireland in 2016. The article focuses on the approach to practice and the underlying ethos of these two services, reflecting a clearly articulated respect for diversity and the privileging of relationships with families by the practitioners and management team. We argue for the significance of early years services in offsetting risk factors associated with adverse childhood experiences and environments, reflecting international research evidence for the potential benefits of high-quality early childhood education and care. The practice orientation within the settings operationalises the national quality and curriculum frameworks of Aistear and Síolta in foregrounding the concepts of identity and belonging, well-being, and partnership with families in daily practice. The services under study were established during a period of rapid social and cultural change in Ireland; heightened economic activity beginning in the mid-1990s was a catalyst for increasing female employment and inward migration. This article argues that in such a context, these services responded to the needs of the uniquely diverse community they serve, contributed to children's early learning and development and provided material and emotional supports to children and parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a critical commentary on researching social work in transition to make the case for why history is important at crucial moments of change. The present transition of child protection and welfare practice from a Health Services Executive Structure to an Independent Child and Family Agency (Tusla) is focused on for illustration. This development signifies a major transition of services within the country influenced by a number of factors, most notably a number of high profile cases of child abuse within institutions in the past and child deaths/neglect cases in the present. In particular, a discourse of prevention, early intervention and the promotion of children's rights are most dominant in light of a quest to purge the mistakes of the past. Supported by a history of the present approach, the author argues that while the existence of a ‘discursive shift’ typified by the establishment of an independent agency is arguably conclusive, the evidence of changes in practice, culture and underpinning analytical approaches is much more vague and complex. The paper concludes with reflections on implications for a wider European and global context and a call for the need for more critically informed approaches to history to inform present transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using data from the Northern Ireland Household Panel survey we demonstrate that attendance at outpatients is determined solely by respondent health. This is consistent with the GP acting as a gatekeeper to other services. Attendance thus provides valuable information on illness severity. Splitting the sample into two statistically distinct groups, we estimate ordered probit regressions of GP utilisation with and without sample selection. The results indicate that ignoring outpatient attendance may result in misspecification. Further, if health is more fully measured, age becomes redundant as a determinant of utilisation and service supply, particularly accident and emergency use, is seen as a significant determinant in explaining GP visits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent establishment of regional assemblies adds a further policy dimension to higher education. This paper consists of an empirical analysis of the choices made by the 1991 Northern Ireland cohort of entrants to higher education to stay in or leave Northern Ireland for universities and subsequently then for employment. The data indicate that the probability to leave was firmly linked to A level scores, though this interacted with religion and social class. The choice of labour market for most students reflected the location of university. Those who returned to Northern Ireland after graduation were less able and earned less on average than those who remained. Employment in the locality of the university improves earnings, possibly due to the information this generates for both parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a fresh analysis of demographic pressure in pre-Famine Ireland. The crucial issue is one of measurement. Population pressure is taken as the ratio of population to non-reproducible natural resources, that is, land. To measure the latter by area ignores the considerable variations that exist in land quality. Therefore, a major innovation of this paper consists of constructing a measure of land quality, which is outlined in Section II. Although its use is restricted to a particular historical question, we hope the measure could have wider applicability, its performance in testing the Malthusian hypothesis is examined in Section III, together with our conclusions which include an interpretation of the cross sectional results based on an alternative framework to Mokyr's. However, we begin by reviewing Mokyr's work and his approach to the problem of measurement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper conducts an empirical investigation into the issue of inequality decomposition, using the 1985 FES micro data tapes for Northern Ireland. It is hoped that it makes three contributions. First, by using the raw data, it permits a fairly rich disaggregation of individuals. The disaggregation employed in this paper viz, by individuals belonging to different 'family types' and individuals of different 'economic status' seems particularly relevant to social policy. Second the data also permits a disaggregation of total income by type of income: this permits one to assess, for example, how much of total inequality is caused by inequality in the distribution of income from different sources. Finally, the analysis is consistent with the existing theoretical literature on inequality decomposition. The main results may be summarized briefly. When the FES sample was divided by subgroups of family type or economic status, then, in 1985, most of income inequality in NI was due to within group rather than to between group inequality. When total income was disaggregated by income type, then inequalities in the distribution of wages and salaries made the largest contribution to the inequality of total income. Prosperous families in NI tended to contain within them a far greater proportion of secondary workers than did the less well off families. It was not implausible therefore that the distribution of employment between families made a major contribution to wage inequalities between them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Recent legislative change has allowed increased access to cannabis products in many jurisdictions. In some locations, this includes over-the-counter (OTC) and/or online access to products containing cannabidiol (CBD), a non-intoxicating cannabinoid with therapeutic properties. Here we compared the availability of CBD products and the associated legislative and regulatory background in nine selected countries.Methods: Accessibility of CBD products was examined in the USA, Canada, Germany, Ireland, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand as of May 2020. Regulatory and other relevant documents were obtained from government agency websites and related sources. Relevant commercial websites and some physical retailers were visited to verify access to CBD-containing products and the nature of the products available.Results: A range of CBD products appeared to be accessible without prescription in seven out of nine countries reviewed. Australia and New Zealand were the exceptions where clinician prescription was required to access any CBD-containing product. CBD products commonly available without prescription included oils, gel capsules, purified crystal and topical products. The daily recommended doses with orally administered non-prescription products were typically well below 150 mg and substantially lower than the doses reported to have therapeutic effects in published clinical trials (e.g., 300-1500 mg). The legal foundations enabling access in several countries were often unclear, with marketed products sometimes failing to meet legal requirements for sale. There was an obvious disparity between federal directives and available products in both the USA and European countries examined.Conclusions: There are a variety of approaches in how countries manage access to CBD products. Many countries appear to permit OTC and online availability of CBD products but often without legislative clarity. As consumer demand for CBD escalates, improved legislation, guidelines and quality control of CBD products would seem prudent together with clinical trials exploring the therapeutic benefits of lower-dose CBD formulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents details of the presence of psoroptic mange in a calf and a cattle imported to southeast Scotland from Ireland. It mentions the diagnosis for the infected livestocks, which include having pruritic dam for the calf, and the presence of areas of erosion over the pelvic region and the scapula. It adds that the diagnosis of the condition can lead to severe condition.