From Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform
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This work informs a better understanding of people’s experiences, helps identify policy challenges and examines how public policy can enhance people’s well-being.
The Minister for Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform, Paschal Donohoe, has today (Wednesday 25 October) published two working papers; the aim of which is to progress a well-being perspective within the policy and budgetary processes.
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 a dashboard are key parts of this important cross-government initiative, the government recognises that a key challenge is the development of ways of utilising the Well-being Framework when formulating public policy. The two working papers that are published today are part of that process.
Budget 2024 –Enhancing the Well-being of People Living in Ireland utilises the Well-being Framework to provide a cross-governmental look at selected measures announced in Budget 2024.
Lives of Older People in Ireland uses a broad range of conceptualisations of ageing and the Well-being Framework to develop an understanding of what is meant by well-being in older age in Ireland. The analysis outlines how there have been significant improvements in well-being amongst older people living in Ireland, but that these need to be understood in the context of the variations that exist in comparing older people’s lives to each other and more generally to the rest of the population.
Welcoming the publication of these working papers Minister Donohoe said:
"Over the course of the last couple of years, Ireland has made good progress in terms of developing a Well-being Framework. At the end of last year, my department published two working papers identified well-being in the context of both the policy and budgetary processes. I welcome the publication of these two additional working papers as they show the ways in which a well-being perspective can further enhance the development of public policy in Ireland for the benefit of our citizens."
The 2 papers published today, plus all previous papers are available at the “well-being” tab of the IGEES publications website.
Ireland’s Well-being Framework sets out an overarching vision of "enabling all our people to live fulfilled lives now and into the future".
This vision is rooted in a desire to make people’s lives better by better understanding people's lived experiences, and therefore how policies can more effectively improve the various interrelated aspects of people’s lives now and into the future. It does this by considering and measuring our progress as a society in a unified manner, with an overarching focus on equality and sustainability.
The overarching goals of this framework are to:
The 11 dimensions of the Well-being Framework are: