A new diffusive gradients in thin films technique (HR-MPTS DGT) with mercapto-functionalized attapulgite in a binding gel was developed for simultaneous two-dimensional (2-D) chemical imaging of As III , Cr III and Sb III selectively at the submillimeter scale, combined with laser ablation...

The drive to reduce child poverty is of particular interest in southern Europe, where the subsidiary role of the State in matters of family policy has implied that programmes of public assistance to poor families with children are often meagre or not available at all. The paper examines the...

Multi-attribute revealed preference data are used to investigate the heterogeneity of tastes in a sample of kayakers in relation to a panel of eleven whitewater sites in Ireland. The paper focuses on a comparison of the analysis of preference heterogeneity using a random parameter logit model...

The World Health Organisation (WHO) predicts that world-wide, depression will be the second largest source of burden of disease by 2020. It is currently estimated that approximately 300,000 Irish people experience depression. To date no research has been carried out on the small area incidence...

The main aim of this paper is to provide a spatial modelling framework for labour force participation and income estimation. The development of a household income distribution for Ireland had previously been hampered by the lack of disaggregated data on individual earnings. Spatial...

Contingent valuation has been used extensively in estimating the value of environmental goods. One criticism of this approach, however, is that respondents in referendum-style contingent valuation surveys may express citizen assessments that take into account benefits to others rather than...

As with ill health in general, the conventional wisdom is that mental illnesses are more prevalent in urban settings. This assumption has meant that there has been a paucity of literature documenting the mental health needs of rural and remote communities. For example, the present literature on...

In this paper we outline the use of a farm level spatial microsimulation model that is used to produce small area farm population microdata estimates of the probability of participation by Irish farmers in the Rural Environmental Protection Scheme (REPS) for the year 2005. Previous studies that...

The aim of this paper is to establish whether there are spatial variations in acute hospital utilisation in Ireland and if so, what are the micro-level factors influencing this variation? Firstly, an alignment process is used to calibrate the acute in-patient attendance and nights spent in...

The rural landscape can be thought of as a non-market commodity associated with the multifunctional aspect of agriculture and the need for its conservation is gaining more prominence in EU policy. This paper explored the Irish general public’s willingness to pay (WTP) for agricultural...