Launch of a public conversation on the Wellbeing Framework for Ireland

Today the government launched a public conversation on the Wellbeing Framework for Ireland. This follows publication of the first report on Ireland’s Wellbeing Framework in July which proposed a vision and conceptual framework for Ireland.

The framework provides an overarching structure for considering quality of life and societal progress, in addition to macroeconomic factors. By bringing different aspects of people’s lives together, it can facilitate more joined up policy decisions.

The public conversation, launched today, aims to create awareness, test the framework, and to get a sense of people’s priorities. This information raising and consultation phase will help shape a greater shared understanding on what matters for wellbeing and quality of life in Ireland.

It will include a broad programme of engagement with both internal and external stakeholders and wider society. This will include a social media campaign, a wide-ranging stakeholder event and a series of workshops and discussions that will explore specific areas of interest such as the views of young people, how to promote sustainable well-being for future generations, maximising linkages between national and local approaches and closing data gaps.

Speaking today, the Taoiseach said:

"The Wellbeing Framework represents an important shift towards systematically understanding and measuring progress in the collective areas that provide for a good life in Ireland. I would encourage people to engage with this important cross-government initiative. It is only through feedback that we can improve the Framework in order to better reflect what is important for the people of Ireland. I also welcome the publication of the CSO’s Wellbeing Information Hub today, and thank them for their ongoing work in providing good quality data in the area of well-being and quality of life."

As part of the launch, the CSO’s Wellbeing Information Hub has been published which will allow users to explore the wellbeing initiative in more depth and to engage with ongoing and future work in the area. Citizens and stakeholders are encouraged to give their views on the Framework, via the survey.

A Well-being Framework for Ireland was published in July.

The overarching vision for this framework, which will guide its development, is enabling all our people to live fulfilled lives now and into the future.

The Well-being Framework is made up of a Conceptual Framework, with 11 dimensions or elements, and a supporting Well-being Dashboard of indicators.

There are 11 dimensions of the Framework:

• subjective wellbeing
• mental and physical health
• income and wealth
• knowledge and skills
• housing and local area
• environment, climate and biodiversity
• safety and security
• work and job quality
• time use
• community, social connections and cultural participation
• civic engagement and cultural expression

Each of these dimensions have a number of core headings or aspects which help define the dimensions. They set out what information the dimension seeks to capture and therefore define the scope for indicator selection for the supporting dashboard.

In order for the dashboard to be useable and not overly complex it does not cover every aspect of well-being captured in the conceptual framework. Instead, the chosen indicators within it should be seen collectively as a high-level holistic indication of the progress towards well-being overall in Ireland.