10th Civil Service Excellence and Innovation Awards

Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, Jack Chambers announced the winners of the 10th Civil Service Excellence and Innovation Awards (CSEIA) in Dublin Castle on Thursday, 29 May 2025.

The CSEIA is an annual event that recognises excellence, best practice and innovation within the Civil Service. Established in 2015, the awards are an opportunity to highlight innovations in policy and service delivery across the Civil Service where effective strategies and lessons can be shared.

Digital First

Recognises projects where digital and technological innovations have been used to improve systems, business or processes.

Winner: Courts Service and the Irish Prison Service
Expanding courtroom video technology and driving increased usage of remote appearances.

Embedding Innovation

Recognises projects that demonstrate excellence in innovation by challenging the ‘old ways of doing things’ and making efforts to do something new.

Winner: Department of Justice
The IPO Modernisation Programme: Transforming the Delivery of Protection.

Workforce of the Future

Recognises projects that demonstrate excellence in terms of promoting people, skills and organisational development amongst staff.

Winner: Public Jobs
Civil Service Capability Framework.

Workplace and Organisation of the Future

Recognises organisations who demonstrate a culture of energy, connection and fulfilment, whereby staff feel positively engaged and connected to their work or project outcomes.

Winner: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Local Government Reform: Establishment of Office of Directly Elected Mayor of Limerick.

Strategic Policy Development

Recognises projects or initiatives that bring different strands of policy together to make a real difference through excellence in policy formulation, design, consultation, implementation and evaluation.

Winner: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Review of Planning Legislation & Preparation of Planning & Development Act 2024

Insights-Driven Decision-Making

Recognises projects that demonstrate excellence in the fields of research, analytics and use of data, and where these are utilised to bring about increased insight and improvements to our citizens.

Winner: Department of Health
Improving Hospital Productivity.

Delivering in a Dynamic Environment

Recognises projects and work which clearly advance the core objectives and values of excellence in public service delivery where there is a degree of rapid, unpredictable or turbulent change.

Winner: Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
P2P – An Innovative Procure to Pay System.

Excellence Through Collaboration

Recognises excellence through collaboration across multiple departments, teams, agencies or sectors and this collaboration played a significant role in the success of an initiative.

Winner: Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport & Media with the Department of Foreign Affairs, and Tourism Ireland
Zeitgeist Irland 24

Citizen Impact and Customer Service

Recognises initiatives where consideration of the customer has been central to the design and delivery of services, resulting in improved service provision, and in the quality of customer service.

Winner: Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications
National Broadband Plan.

World Class Civil Service

Recognises teams and projects that are a source of inspiration to other public administrations at home and abroad.

Winner: Department of Social Protection
State Pension Reform.

Climate Action and Sustainable Government

Recognises projects that involved in action in relation to tackling the climate crisis or delivery of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Winner: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Building a Spatial Analysis toolkit to drive Smart and Sustainable decision making in Public Services for Forestry.

You can learn more about all this year's shortlisted projects by watching the playlist of Award Category videos below.

DIGITAL FIRST

• Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine - Area Monitoring System in Action: a new approach to monitoring CAP compliance
• Courts Service and Irish Prison Service - Expanding courtroom video technology and driving increased usage of remote appearances
• Department of Social Protection - Illness Benefit Online Project

EMBEDDING INNOVATION

• An Coimisiún Toghcháin, the Electoral Commission - “Your Vote is Your Voice” 2024 Voter Registration/Activation Campaign
• Department of Justice - The IPO Modernisation Programme: Transforming the Delivery of Protection
• Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine - Veterinary Inspection and Audit Programme

WORKFORCE OF THE FUTURE

• Department of Defence - Defence Studies Micro Credential
• Department of Further & Higher Education, Research, Innovation & Science - Digital Marketing Apprenticeship in the Civil Service
• Public Jobs - Civil Service Capability Framework

WORKPLACE AND ORGANISATION OF THE FUTURE

• Department of Foreign Affairs - 10 Days of GEDI – gender, equality, diversity and inclusion
• Department of Enterprise, Trade & Employment - Ready for Tomorrow: DETE Innovation Partnership Pilot
• Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage - Local Government Reform: Establishment of Office of Directly Elected Mayor of Limerick

STRATEGIC POLICY DEVELOPMENT

• Department of Further & Higher Education, Research, Innovation & Science - Tertiary Degree Programmes - Expanding opportunities to study in a unified third level system
• Department of Education - Collaboration with Traveller and Roma organisations to develop the first ever Traveller and Roma Education Strategy
• Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage - Review of Planning Legislation & Preparation of Planning & Development Act 2024

INSIGHTS-DRIVEN DECISION-MAKING

• Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment - An Assessment of the Cumulative Impact of Proposed Measures to Improve Working Conditions in Ireland
• Department of Health - Improving Hospital Productivity
• Central Statistics Office - National Data Infrastructure – developing data as a national resource

DELIVERING IN A DYNAMIC ENVIRONMENT

• Revenue Commissioners - The Debt Warehousing Scheme
• Department of Transport - Transformation of Emergency Management in the Department of Transport
• Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth - P2P: An Innovative Procure to Pay System

EXCELLENCE THROUGH COLLABORATION

• Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport & Media with the Department of Foreign Affairs, and Tourism Ireland - Zeitgeist Irland 24
• Revenue Commissioners - Creation of Ireland’s first Artificial Reef
• Department of Transport - Procurement of IRCG (Irish Coast Guard) SAR (Search and Rescue) Aviation Services Contract

CITIZEN IMPACT AND CUSTOMER SERVICE

• Department of Justice - Transforming Citizenship from end to end
• Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications - National Broadband Plan
• Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth - Supported decision making, a multiagency programme of reform

WORLD CLASS CIVIL SERVICE

• Houses of the Oireachtas - Establishment of the Parliamentary Budget Office's Policy and Election Proposal Costing Service
• Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage - 4th National Biodiversity Action Plan
• Department of Social Protection - State Pension Reform

CLIMATE ACTION AND SUSTAINABLE GOVERNMENT

• Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications - Ireland’s National Deposit Return Scheme
• Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications - South Coast Designated Maritime Area Plan for Offshore Renewable Energy
• Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine - Building a Spatial Analysis toolkit to drive Smart and Sustainable decision making in Public Services for Forestry