Public employment services (PES) have undergone significant change since2011, reshaping the roles of the market, state, and community sector withinIreland’s mixed economy of welfare. The post-crisis years saw thereplacement of FÁS with a new network of one-stop-shop Intreo activationservices, and the procurement of new employment services for the long-termunemployed through competitive tendering and Payment-by-Results. Thisprocess of marketisation is now being extended to other PES currentlydelivered by community organisations under block grants, such as LocalEmployment Services and Job Clubs. We position Ireland’s PES landscape as astrategic actionfield wherein various providers compete with one another forposition, power and resources during episodes of contention. Applying thislens to the ongoing reform of activation policy and PES institutions, thepaper considers how the recent trajectory of PES marketisation has remainedpolitically contentious. It examines the strategies of various providers andpolicy actors in shaping the politics of reform, focusing especially on theposition of community organisations within thefield and the degree towhich they have been able to strategically mobilise against marketisation.Lessons are drawn about the nature of Irish politics and policy reform.