Socialising Economic Development in Ireland: Social Enterprise an Untapped Resource

The chapter provides a comprehensive explanatory framework outlining why social enterprises have been underutilised by policy-makers in Ireland. The Irish State has afforded social enterprise a narrow role in realising the State’s social and economic objectives. It is incumbent upon community organisations to demand that the State has a change of policy direction towards social enterprise, where its current residual role is replaced by a more central role in economic development. The chapter provides an analysis of the factors which led to the growth of the credit union movement in Ireland. Lessons from the development of Ireland’s credit union movement could be applied to growing social enterprise in other sectors of the economy