Country Profile: Ireland

AuthorNaldini, Andrea; Pompili, Marco; Peruccacci, Eleonora
Pages186-190
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 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 program m es of curren t ex penditure w it h an an nu al 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 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/

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