No of Sets in 2023 / 2024: 2 No of Periods per Week: 5

Department Staff: Ms. L Carey, Mr I O’Herlihy

Brief Summary of Course Content

Economics is a social science which studies human behaviour. Consumers make different decisions regarding how they spend their limited incomes - do they save or spend more? Do they make rational decisions? How do businesses decide on the optimum amount of output? Why do different markets have different characteristics? How do the government formulate fiscal policy in response to consumer decisions? Why did Ireland give up its right to establish monetary policy? Why is international trade so important and why do events outside of Ireland impact us as consumers to such an extent???

If these questions interest you and you want to be stimulated and challenged, then economics is the subject for you.

Economics is the study of how people manage limited resources such as money to meet their goals. By understanding the reasons why people spend their money in certain ways, economists can try to introduce incentives to change their behaviours. Economics is divided into two broad categories:

Microeconomics considers how individual people decide what goods they are willing to buy or not buy based on maximising their personal 'utility' (getting as much benefit as possible from their money), and how firms and businesses will try to take advantage of consumers' habits to maximise profit.

Macroeconomics then considers how governments handle the economy as a whole, and how they select policies which meet their goals, such as stable economic growth (avoiding recessions), minimising the national debt, and encouraging employment. How the government handles issues such as fiscal policy (how much money flows in the economy), international trade, and banking all have implications for economics stability and growth.

In class, we will explore the economic theories and then apply them to current world issues, with a focus on Ireland in particular. It is a subject that keeps itself fresh and interesting and is very rewarding as a result. It is recommended that pupils should be interested in current affairs. It would be important to be listening to the news and reading the daily papers.

The Leaving Certificate composes of 20% weighting as  a research project in Michaelmas Term of VI form and 80% final assessment the following June. 

Comparison of Results with National Figures

For the 2023 LC results 24% of pupils achieved a H1 ( compared with 12% nationally)  with a further 39% achieving a H2 ( compared with 20% nationally) . These results are much better than the 2022 ones!

Possible Career Areas for which this Subject is Useful/ Essential

Economics is useful in a wide range of career areas including but not exclusively:

● Teaching and Lecturing

● Journalism

● Media Studies

● Politics

● Business enterprises.

● International Studies

● International Relations.

● Law