Country Profile: Ireland

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

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 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 programmes of current expenditure with an annual 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 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/