Minister Donohoe publishes a working paper that progresses a well-being perspective within the budgetary process

The Minister for Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform, Paschal Donohoe, has today (Friday), published a working paper that progresses the place of a well-being perspective within the budgetary process.

Each year, the Budget allocates public resources to support and enhance the well-being of people living in Ireland. The development of Ireland’s Well-being Framework is a Programme for Government commitment. It was launched in July 2021. The Framework consists of 11 dimensions which are made up of different aspects of well-being. The Well-being Information Hub, which is hosted by the CSO, covers 35 data indicators across these 11 dimensions and provides a medium term, holistic view of quality of life in Ireland (all data and sources available on the CSO website).

While the development of a Well-being Framework for Ireland and dashboard are key parts of this important cross-government initiative, the Government recognises that a key challenge is to develop ways of utilising the Well-being Framework within the policy process. The working paper that is published today is part of that ongoing process. The purpose of doing so is to increase transparency about the use of public resources and inform discussions about the prioritisation of these limited resources. More broadly, it is intended to inform a dialogue about how a well-being perspective may further contribute to informing resource allocation decisions.

Budget 2025 – Enhancing the Well-being of People Living in Ireland utilises the Well-being Framework to provide a cross-governmental presentation of the selected measures announced in the Expenditure Report. It is part of the Government’s commitment to featuring the Well-being Framework at relevant points in the Budgetary cycle. Over the last few years, the Well-being Framework was a theme at the National Economic Dialogue, was part of the Summer Economic Statement and the associated analysis also featured in Budget Day documentation.

Welcoming the publication of these working papers Minister Donohoe said:

"Since 2020, Ireland has made significant progress in terms of developing a Well-being Framework, and in particular developing ways of including a well-being perspective within the budgetary process. The working paper that is being published today demonstrates how the Well-being Framework has been used to provide a whole-of-government description of public expenditure. The Well-being Framework has also provided a focus of discussion at the National Economic Dialogues and has been used to inform an annual report describing our country's progress across each of the 11 well-being dimensions. All of these aspects of the well-being initiative are part of a broad suite of reforms that is continuing to develop and deepen the whole-of-year budgetary process in a way that provides important insights into how public policy is providing people living in Ireland with the opportunities and resources to progress their own lives as well as those of their families."

The paper published today, plus all previous papers are available to view at the “well-being” tab of the IGEES Publications website.

ENDS