A new book by Tom Healy of the trade union-backed think tank the Nevin Economic Research Institute (NERI), was launched last month. An Ireland Worth Working For proposes an alternative economic model to tackle challenges such as technology, demographics and the environment.

The publication addresses a range of challenges in an Irish, EU and global context, while also considering the future of work and wages, public services and new enterprises over the next 100 years. Healy says it aspires to build on the democratic programme announced by the first Dáil in January 1919.

The book also features a foreword from President Michael D Higgins, who praised the book’s “important contribution to a necessary debate on our shared island.”

An Ireland Worth Working For: Towards A New Democratic Programme, by Tom Healy is available in bookshops now.