'Europeanisation as Implementation': The Impact of the EU on Environmental Policy Making in Ireland

The fabric of Irish environmental policy has been significantly influenced by EU membership. Can the same be said of the process of environmental policy-making in Ireland? Europeanisation as a conceptual tool has widely been used to analyse the domestic impact of the EU. This term refers to how the EU influences the policies, politics and polity of each of its constituent states. But Europeanisation is not without its critics. Studies employing the concept have so far been unable to fully uncover the mechanisms through which Europeanisation can occur across these three dimensions. Yet the analysis of EU implementation offers a conceptual way out. This article applies an actor-centred institutional framework to two instances of EU implementation in Ireland and in so doing explores the impact of the EU on the domestic institutions, structures, processes and actors involved in environmental policy-making in Ireland.