Country Profile: Ireland

AuthorNaldini, Andrea; Pompili, Marco; Peruccacci, Eleonora
Pages186-190
186
15.COUN TRY PROFI LE: I RELAN D
15.1.Section1 - Nat ional rules for the evaluation of State aidschemes
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. The Irish Spending Code states that all
Irish public bodies are obliged to treat public funds with care, and to ensure that the
best possible value for money is obtained whenever public money is being spent or
invested. The Public Spending Code is the set of rules and procedures that ensure that
these standards are upheld across the Irish public service’ (Department of Public
Expenditure and Reform. 2019).While there are guidelines for the evaluation of
programmes, there are no specific guidelines 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 ver50 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 programmes of current expenditure with an annual value in excess of30
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 the beginning and mid-point of each 5-year cycle. Evaluation should look atthe
quest ions of p rogr amme Rat ionale, Relev ance, Effectiveness, Efficiency and Im pact .
New Public Spending Code guidelines were published in December 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
adh 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 staff in State Agencies which the Department funds which undertake
evaluation. Beyond staffing, the Department may also procure external contractors to
under tak e specific evaluations.
160https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/public-spending-code/

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