Press release
Minister of State Eoghan Murphy launches Where Your Money Goes website
From Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform
Published on
Last updated on
Eoghan Murphy TD, Minister of State for eGovernment at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, today (Tuesday) launched a new online government tool aimed at promoting a greater awareness and better understanding of how government spends your money.
Speaking earlier, Minister Murphy said:
“I’m delighted to launch this new website today. This is a tool designed to allow taxpayers get a better view of how their taxes fund public goods and services. It is a good example of using open data to promote informed debate about the most efficient and effective allocation of public resources.”
The Where Your Money Goes website is a graphical, easy-to-use tool. It will allow users to quickly drill into the various sectors that make up the €68 billion of this year’s government expenditure.
It includes dedicated summaries, interactive charts and graphs for the main categories of expenditure such as Social Protection, Health, and Education, and will allow users to look back at expenditure trends of the last decade.
A brief explanatory video is available at https://youtu.be/I0K7MY0Pixw.
On the wider context for the development of the Where Your Money Goes website, the Minister noted:
“We’ve come through a serious financial crisis, which was allowed to develop in part because of a lack of rigorous and informed public debate. We now have a responsibility to navigate our economy – which is currently very healthy according to all the main indicators – through uncertain waters."
"This is going to require difficult choices, so it is essential that those choices are informed ones; not just on the part of government, but also on the part of the Oireachtas and the citizen. That means giving people a source for trusted information which they can access in an easy way."
"That’s the motivation behind this new tool and I hope it will help everyone formulate and interrogate policy proposals, and help further embed a culture of evidence-based policy making.”
This website was built and will be maintained and updated by the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO), a division of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.
ENDS
Notes to the Editor:
More information on the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) can be found at https://whodoeswhat.gov.ie/division/per/OGCIO/.
The Where Your Money Goes website is a graphical, easy-to-use tool for examining gross (Voted and Non-Voted) government expenditure over a period of 10 years. The data is presented in a variety of interactive charts, the elements of which may be clicked on to show a greater level of detail.
Website features include:
The Public Service ICT Strategy prepared by the OGCIO was approved by government and published in 2015. It sets out a new model for ICT delivery across the entire public service, delivering more efficiency and effectiveness in service delivery through a more integrated, shared and digital environment.
The strategy identifies a number of key strategic objectives that will set the future direction for innovation and excellence in ICT within the public service. Implementation of the strategy is under way.