A blog from the Northern Ireland Assembly Research and Information Service

Latest Articles

Browse all the articles published on the Research Matters blog, with the most recent articles appearing at the top.

A chart showing the scale of change in TES proportions in % points, 1999-2000 to 2016-2017

We don’t need no education!

The finances of Northern Ireland’s schools have been in the spotlight for some time. For example, the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee at Westminster is currently

A photograph of the Houses of Parliament

EU exit regulations and Northern Ireland

A high profile consequence of the continuing failure to establish an Executive and fully functioning Assembly was the legislative passage this week of the Northern

Image of the 'Harvests from Land and Sea' exhibition at Down County Museum (image used courtesy of Down County Museum)

Measuring museum success: How and why?

Northern Ireland (NI) currently has 44 Accredited museums. But how does this compare with elsewhere and how should we go about assessing whether our museums

Where and why does Invest NI invest in NI?

This post examines financial support provided by Invest Northern Ireland (Invest NI) to businesses located in Northern Ireland (NI) from 2013-14 to 2017-18, identifying key

A photograph showing Market Square in Lisburn (credit: Albert Bridge)

What are rates and why do we pay them?

Rates are a property tax paid by households and businesses. There are two different types of rates in Northern Ireland, domestic rates for residential properties

A photograph showing a selection of titles from the 100 classification in the Assembly Library; in the Dewey Decimal system, 100 is used to classify philosophy and psychology

Research Matters at 100

Our blog has just published its 100th article. The Assembly Research and Information Service launched Research Matters in May 2016 in order to provide short,