Ireland
Social public services are provided through a combination of state, voluntary and charitable organisations and in recent years there has been growing pressure to coordinate these various services. Although Ireland's social public services have led increasingly to an institutional model with a growth of statutory services, their origins lie in church, charitable and voluntary provision, which has increasingly been regulated and funded by the state. In Ireland the voluntary and community sector have always been significant providers of community-based services. In this respect the development of the social economy is seen as a positive way forward. In contrast to other European countries, it has been slower to decentralise services and the bulk of its social public services remain centralised and delivered within a national framework.