This paper focuses entirely on Irish adult education and training. During the 1990s and at the start of the new millennium, several reports and policy papers on education and training were produced by the Irish Government, some of which were reflections on policy and practice. Appropriate education and training provision for adult students and those in work has featured either as the central or a lesser theme in these publications. The purpose of this paper is to review these key publications concerning adult education and training with a view to elucidating the broad direction of recent policy in the field in Ireland.