Freedom Institute

The Freedom Institute is a free-market classical-liberal think tank based in the Republic of Ireland which was founded in early 2003. It is a member of the Stockholm Network

Principles

The organization cites Edmund Burke, Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman as inspirations. It defines its four main principles as:

• free enterprise as the most just and effective route to prosperity
• individual responsibility and voluntary solutions to solve social problems
• limited, accountable and honest government, carried out as much as possible in the public interest, free from manipulation by special interests
• defending freedom worldwide through foreign policy based on an effective response to tyranny and terrorism together with action to bring human rights and democracy to those denied them

In its reports[1], the Freedom Institute favours lowering taxation, reducing the powers of government, free trade, civil partnerships for homosexual couples, the War on Terror and unrestricted economic migration. It is opposed to the minimum wage, compulsory teaching of the Irish language and the smoking ban in Ireland's pubs.

Membership

The Institute was founded in Ireland by people from a range of backgrounds, mainly financial, legal and media professionals, third-level students and academics. It is active in third-level institutions, with members in Trinity College Dublin, Waterford Institute of Technology and University College Dublin as well as an officially-recognized student society in University College Cork.

The FI claims to be Ireland's fastest growing policy group, citing the doubling in its number of spokespersons (to over 25) and the quadrupling of membership (approximately 170 active members, according to its annual report for 2004). The organisation claims that each of these members is expected to fulfil a role.

Organisational Structure

The Institute has five coordinators who oversee the day-to-day activities. Policy is subdivided into six research areas:

• Culture and education
• Economics and infrastructure
• Environment and regional affairs
• Health
• International relations
• Justice

Activities

The Freedom Institute's activities include a policy weblog[2], policy reports, lobbying of Oireachtas members and policy-makers in other countries, media appearances, as well as involvement in various single-issue campaigns. It has also conducted a poll[3] of health service consumers in association with Lansdowne Market Research.

It has published over 40 reports, authored by 13 spokespersons.

Organisational Links

The FI does not endorse any political party or politician, but has built links with other think tanks, notably Tech Central Station, the US-based policy group which recently opened an office in Brussels, the Globalization Institute based in London and others. To date, these links have produced exchanges of personnel, ideas, and collaborations on specific policy outputs.

In mid-2005, the FI launched the Freedom Institute UK, its first overseas branch, with members in London and Cambridge.

Media

The Freedom Institute or its members have appeared in media outlets such as the Sunday Times, FrontPageMag.com[4], Tech Central Station [5][6], the Daily Star[7], the Jerusalem Post[8], the Irish Times[9], and Magill magazine [10] and Sunday Business Post.

Freedom Institute members have spoken by invitation in UCD, TCD, UCC and are occasional contributors to media programs such as RTÉ Television's the Big Bite[11], BBC Radio 5 and Newstalk 106 FM's talk shows.

See also

• Progressive Democrats — free-market liberal political party in the Republic of Ireland

External links

• Freedom Institute Homepage
• FI Fie Fo Fum — a weblog run by Freedom Institute critics