"Tourism Ireland is a body established under the Good Friday Agreement to market the island of Ireland as a visitor destination in overseas markets. It is accountable to Ministers from Ireland and Northern Ireland sitting jointly at the North South Ministerial Council. At administrative level the body reports separately to the Departments with policy responsibility for tourism in Ireland and Northern Ireland. These overlapping accountability frameworks are in contest, leading to conflicting objectives and obligations.
This research examines the background to the formation of Tourism Ireland, its existing accountability framework, and the issues that arise with regard to the diverging views of the two jurisdictions on the island of Ireland on the most appropriate direction of the body. The research employs theories of sovereignty, confederalism, nationalism and functionalism to determine how the accountability framework could be optimised while respecting the diverse perspectives of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
It finds that complex matrix accountability frameworks that mix confederal and state-level accountability are not the most suitable approach for the oversight of transboundary bodies. A single accountability path to a joint council at political level and a joint executive at official level may represent a more suitable alternative framework, with the policy departments in the two jurisdictions having a consultative role in terms of communicating their policy objectives to the joint executive. Individual jurisdictions’ power of veto over joint decisions would be curtailed through the establishment of a mechanism to resolve contentious issues.
Tourism promotion in particular is closely associated with a state’s efforts to create a positive image of itself among other states: therefore measures which limit the ability of individual states to market themselves as visitor destinations are likely to be a source of tension unless the measure can be shown to be pareto-improving for all the participating states."
This research examines the background to the formation of Tourism Ireland, its existing accountability framework, and the issues that arise with regard to the diverging views of the two jurisdictions on the island of Ireland on the most appropriate direction of the body. The research employs theories of sovereignty, confederalism, nationalism and functionalism to determine how the accountability framework could be optimised while respecting the diverse perspectives of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
It finds that complex matrix accountability frameworks that mix confederal and state-level accountability are not the most suitable approach for the oversight of transboundary bodies. A single accountability path to a joint council at political level and a joint executive at official level may represent a more suitable alternative framework, with the policy departments in the two jurisdictions having a consultative role in terms of communicating their policy objectives to the joint executive. Individual jurisdictions’ power of veto over joint decisions would be curtailed through the establishment of a mechanism to resolve contentious issues.
Tourism promotion in particular is closely associated with a state’s efforts to create a positive image of itself among other states: therefore measures which limit the ability of individual states to market themselves as visitor destinations are likely to be a source of tension unless the measure can be shown to be pareto-improving for all the participating states."
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