> Yes, but what is the Labour's share of the parliamentary seats? 12% or so last time I checked.
That's correct, and it proves your point that labour is weak here. But I'm not sure how it relates to whether labour is socialist, social democrat or nationalist.
> My point was that national welfare system is, for the most part, a function of the strength of organized labor and its political arms (social democrats and socialists). The weaker the labor the smaller the welfare state or perhaps the more of the public welfare services farmed out to organized religion under the umbrella of "subsidiarity." That seems to be the case in Ireland, no?
The social welfare system itself (as opposed to other social services such as education and health care) is largely a state-run institution and not one farmed out to the Church. The Church does play a role in filling some of the gaps left by the inadequacy of the system, of course. The provision of other services by the Church is usually justified not on the basis of subsidiarity but either on supposed demand (i.e. "we're a Catholic country") or simply the impracticality of disentangling it from those services.
It is true of course that the social welfare system is poor enough and is being further undermined by government, the right-wing opposition and the media, all of whom have been making a concerted effort to plant the idea that our rates are the highest in the EU, which of course is simply false (although interestingly, unemployment and child benefit rates are significantly higher here than in Britain - despite the stronger position of both "labour" and Labour in that country). But the government hasn't yet got up the courage to cut social welfare because, as I said earlier, its strongest support is among those most dependent on it.