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Abstract
Strong parliaments hold the government, its departments and the wider public administration to account. Such parliaments are built on strong and active committee systems. For a long time, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was the only oversight committee consistently in place in the Houses of the Oireachtas. This article explains how the committee system has been gradually expanded and strengthened, and how its remit to oversee the actions of the government is wide. It explains the institutional factors that lead to the continued prominence of the PAC, including how it draws on the expert, independent reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General to conduct its oversight work, while noting that the PAC still faces the same challenges as other committees concerning a wide remit, finite resources and the multiple motivations of its membership. The work of the PAC is described and placed in the context of the financial scrutiny cycle which is being developed in the Houses of the Oireachtas. This is followed by a discussion of how the PAC manages its potentially wide remit to conduct ex post financial scrutiny of public expenditure, and the balance between what is referred to as 'police-patrol', rather than 'fire-alarm', scrutiny and the procedural changes which are designed to ensure that the PAC (with the authority of the Dáil) can examine and hold actors to account for the expenditure of any public money.

The literature on parliament identifies many factors which facilitate or impede parliamentary committees in their quest to scrutinise legislation and to oversee and hold government to account, including the formal powers assigned to them, political factors associated with the make-up of parliament, structural factors associated with parliamentary tradition, and the rules and procedure adopted by parliament. This article is concerned with how parliamentary rules and procedure can affect committees. It develops a framework of the procedural variables associated with 'effective committee systems' and uses it to assess the Oireachtas committee system prior to and after the reforms introduced by the thirty-first and thirty-second Dáileanna. It finds that many, though not all, of the procedural conditions for a strong committee system have been put in place. However, while changes to procedure can remove obstacles to effective committee systems, other factors - above all, the incentive for politicians to engage with committee work - will ultimately determine whether the reforms truly strengthen parliament.

The 'distinctiveness criteria' are an instrument of peace and conflict impact assessment (PCIA) applied to the EU Programme for Peace and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland and the border counties of Ireland (Peace II). This article evaluates the capacity of the 'distinctiveness criteria' tool, as applied, to generate a peace-building impact for the fund. While the criteria are found to have influenced project design, their potential impact is weakened by a relatively narrow and quantitative application at assessment, monitoring and evaluation stages, and by the absence of independent conflict analysis. A stronger monitoring and evaluation culture at the project level could increase the impact of the criteria and, therefore, the peace-building impact of the programme, and could help the framework to avoid some of the weaknesses generally associated with PCIA.

This paper evaluates the usefulness of the 'distinctiveness criteria' in directing European Union structural funds in Northern Ireland and the border counties of Ireland towards peacebuilding goals. While the criteria are judged to have successfully added a peacebuilding framework to the programme, a number of weaknesses, both operational and conceptual, are found. The article argues that their impact would be sharpened by a stronger focus on evaluation at the micro and meso levels, as well as a more thoughtful qualitative application of the criteria that links actions to the challenges of peacebuilding. The relevance of the conclusions to other areas in conflict is briefly considered.

This paper evaluates the usefulness of the 'distinctiveness criteria' in directing European Union structural funds in Northern Ireland & the border counties of Ireland towards peacebuilding goals. While the criteria are judged to have successfully added a peacebuilding framework to the programme, a number of weaknesses, both operational & conceptual, are found. The article argues that their impact would be sharpened by a stronger focus on evaluation at the micro & meso levels, as well as a more thoughtful qualitative implication of the criteria that links actions to the challenges of peacebuilding. The relevance of the conclusions to other areas in conflict is briefly considered. Tables, References. Adapted from the source document.

Global trajectories for reducing carbon emissions depend on the local adoption of alternatives to conventional energy sources, technologies, and urban development. Yet, decisions on which type of capital investments to make, made by local governments as part of the normal budget cycle, typically do not incorporate climate considerations. Furthermore, current academic and professional literature specific to climate change draws attention to decision-making tools that would require access to technical expertise, data, and financial support that may not be practical for cities in low- and middle-income countries. Arguably, the methodologies most able to effect this transformation will be those that are convenient and affordable to administer, and that offer straight-forward low carbon alternatives to traditional forms of infrastructure investment. Current methodologies for capital investment planning that do not take climate change into consideration can result in prioritization of investments that diverge from a low carbon path and a potential missed opportunity to reap financial benefits from efficiency gains. This paper concludes that relatively minor alterations to common procedures can reveal the trade-offs and local benefits of low carbon alternatives in the capital investment planning process. This paper was written as an input to the preparation of the Climate-Informed Capital Investment Planning Guidebook, a how-to guide for local government staff, which will be published in 2015.

Aims and objectives: The study aims to explore why and how pregnant women use the internet as a health information source, what overall effect it has on their decision making and how this is affecting their interaction with their health care professional. Background: As the internet has become primarily a source of information among mothers-to-be, health care professionals require greater understanding of the impact of such technology to provide adequate support and advice to new mothers. Selection criteria: Pregnant women, from the time of their first meeting with their midwife until birth, were approached for the study. Supplementary criteria included: age 18 and above, living within Frimley Heath Foundation Trust, and fluency in the English language. Data collection and analysis: This was a primary research study with data collected through an online survey. As the purpose of the study was to collect data on an impact that cannot be directly observed, an online questionnaire was utilised to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. The data was analysed and presented thematically. Results: In accordance with the UK government policy to promote registration of clinical studies and public access to research findings affecting health and social care, the research is registered on the public database. Authors' conclusion: The use of the internet as a source of pregnancy-related information has become increasingly popular and influential among childbearing women. As health professionals, midwives have a responsibility to acknowledge the fact that women access the internet for support and pregnancy-related information. For the wider profession, midwifery leaders need to set the direction of travel for their profession in engaging with social media and provide guidance on directing pregnant women towards sources of information which are both evidence-based and valid.