Claire Finn

Claire is visiting from Ireland under the Endeavour Australia Post-graduate and Post –doctoral Research Fellowship Program. She commenced her fellowship in October 2005 spending time as a research visitor both at the Department of Economics, University of Melbourne and at CHERE, UTS.

She is a PhD Candidate at the Department of Politics and Geary Institute, University College Dublin under the supervision of economist Professor Colm Harmon and political scientist Dr. Niamh Hardiman. She is working on issues pertaining to private health insurance and health policy.

She was awarded a PhD Scholarship from the Irish Council Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences in 2002. She holds a BA in History and Politics (1997), an MA in Politics (1998) and a Higher Diploma in Statistics (2000) from University College Dublin. Formerly, she was employed as a Research Assistant at The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) in Dublin where she worked on three occupational employment forecasting projects and has a number of associated publications. In addition, she has worked on a number of commissioned policy reports in early childhood education and on acute impatient waiting lists for two Irish governmental bodies, the National Economic and Social Forum and the National Treatment Purchase Fund. She has also presented her research at a number of national and international conferences. She will take up employment at the Geary Institute, (UCD) as Researcher on her return to Ireland.