Country Profile: Ireland

• Author: Naldini, Andrea; Pompili, Marco; Peruccacci, Eleonora
• Pages: 186-190

186

15. COUN TRY PROFI LE: I RELAN D

15.1. Sect ion 1 - Nat ional rules for the evaluation of State aid schemes

15.1 .1 . Obligat ion or lack ther eof to evaluat e

The requi rem ent t o ev aluat e St ate aid inst rum en ts come s fr om more gen era l gu idel ines

contained in the Irish Public Spending Code160. Th e Irish Spending Code states t hat ‘all

Irish public bodies are obliged to treat public funds wit h car e, and to ensu re t hat the

best possible value for m oney is obtained whenever public m oney is being spent or

invested. The Public Spending Code is the set of rules and procedures that ensure that

these st andards ar e upheld across th e Irish public service’ ( Department of Public

Expenditur e and Refor m . 20 19 ). While t here are guidelin es for th e evaluation of

program m es, there are no sp ecific gu idelines for the evaluation of State-aid

instr ument s. Evaluat ions could be undert aken for any relevant sect ors.

15.1 .2 . Proced ures t o enfor ce t he o bligation

The I rish Public Spending Code advises that all major capit al expenditure go throug h a

6- st age mo nit or ing and ev alua tio n p roce ss, wit h a de cision ga te at each st age. Ex-post -

pr ogr am me eva luat ion is und ert ake n f or pro gra mm es wit h e xpe ndit ur e i n ex cess of €10

million. For program mes wit h capit al expen diture o ver €50 m illion, ex-post evaluation s

are r equired t o be submi tted to t he D epartm ent of Public Expendit ure an d Reform.

Ongoing program m es of curren t ex penditure w it h an an nu al value in excess of €30

million and of 5 year s or mo re dur ati on a re subje ct t o ex-an te and mid -ter m eval uat ion

at t he beginning and m id-point of each 5-year cycle. Evaluation should look at th e

quest ions of p rogr amme Rat ionale, Relev ance, Effectiveness, Efficiency and Im pact .

New Public Spending Code guidelin es were pu blished in Decem ber 2019. While these

guidelines require t he ex-post evaluation of capital funding in excess of EUR 10 million

an d on goin g e valu ati on of c urr ent ex pend itu re pro gra mm es i n ex cess of annu al a mou nt

of EUR 30 million , t he actual en forcement of ev aluation appears to still be m ade on an

ad h oc basis, with necessit y for ex -post programme evaluation dependent on priorities

of Gove rnm en t, th e t im e si nce prev iou s ev alu atio n o f p rog ram m es, eval uat ion of sim ilar

pr ogrammes, as well as the av ailab ilit y of r esources dedicated to evaluation.

The eva luat ion of pr ogr amm es at a De partm ent al lev el w ill be dict ate d b y t he reso urce s

all ocat ed to Eval uat ion . Th e Ev alua tio n fun ctio n in t he Dep art m ent of Pub lic Ex pen dit ur e

and Refor m (DBEI) has a com plement of 5 full-t ime equiv alent s (FTEs). There ar e also

evaluation st aff in St at e Agencies which the Depar tment f unds which undertake

evaluation. Beyond staffing, the Depar tment may also procur e external contractors to

under tak e specific evaluations.

160 ht tp s: //www.g ov.ie/en/ publication/ public-spending -code/