Welcome to the Irish State Administration Database.

This resource provides a dataset capturing the establishment, growth and evolution of Ireland's state administration from the foundation of the Irish Free State in 1922 to the present. In so doing, it constitutes a major research infrastructure for the humanities and social sciences in Ireland, and is of benefit to political scientists, historians, lawyers, sociologists and specialists in public policy. It should also be of interest to public servants and public representatives.

The database records information about all national-level public organisations i.e. central Government departments and the agencies under their aegis, commercial state-owned enterprises and other relevant public bodies and institutions. For each such organisation, the database tracks its creation and any subsequent changes to its organisational status (e.g. mergers with other organisations, privatisations etc) as well as the evolution of its defining characteristics which include its functions, legal status and policy fields within which it operates.

The data presented here has been collected principally from official and primary sources. Where this has not proved possible, secondary sources have been relied upon and the accuracy of the data has been verified. The project team would appreciate the identification of any errors or the provision of additional information from users of the database. To this end, the entry for each organisation and event provides a facility to post a comment. The database is dynamic and will be updated on a regular basis. It is best viewed in Internet Explorer 8, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.

Queries or comments can be e-mailed to info@isad.ie. The links to the left are designed to help users navigate their way through the database and understand its contents. We also provide links to partner projects in Norway as well as other databases. It is our intention to develop further the inter-operability of the database with other related sources of information.

The development of this resource was funded by a Thematic Research Grant from the Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS).

Users of the Irish State Administration Database are kindly requested to use the following citation:
Hardiman, Niamh; MacCarthaigh, Muiris & Scott, Colin. Year. The Irish State Administration Database. http://www.isad.ie. Date of access.

A full series of Working paper emanating from this project is available here

Related projects:

The Norwegian State Administration Database
Regulatory Agencies in the State of Flanders, Belgium
The American State Project