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Ireland is highly centralised and fast growing, creating co-ordination challenges in terms of delivering key investments and in key policy areas like transport, housing and education. Actors across levels of government recognise a need for a more coordinated approach to the delivery of the National Planning Framework, the principal spatial planning strategy of Project Ireland 2040, which includes also the National Development Plan (public investment).The report has three objectives which ultimately aim to support more balanced regional outcomes in Ireland: i) to clarify the gaps in terms of regional attractiveness across and within Ireland’s regions, including in terms of population and investment attraction; ii) to assess the ability for the National Planning Framework – in its current form – to address these gaps, and iii) to consider what multi-level governance reforms and attractiveness policies can be introduced or scaled to generate more territorially-balanced development.

Ireland is home to a vibrant social enterprise community, active in essential sectors such as health, care, and education, as well as local development and cultural and creative sectors. This report provides an in-depth analysis of social entrepreneurship and social enterprises in Ireland. It identifies the country’s strengths and challenges and provides policy recommendations. An action plan with concrete and actionable measures is also provided to support Ireland in the development of its new national social enterprise policy. Following an overview of the socio-economic landscape (Chapter 1), the report describes factors underpinning social entrepreneurship, social enterprises and the social economy in the context of Ireland (Chapter 2); analyses the institutional and legal framework around social enterprises (Chapter 3); explores conditions and opportunities for access to finance and funding (Chapter 4); navigates developments in access to public and private markets for social enterprises (Chapter 5); looks at the existing state of social impact measurement and data availability on social enterprises (Chapter 6) and concludes with skills and business development for social entrepreneurship (Chapter 7).

During the last decade, several OECD countries have been supporting citizen engagement in policy making to better respond to increasingly volatile environments and complex problems. Ireland has a strong tradition and culture of partnership models and stakeholder engagement in education policy making. However, a desire to explore new opportunities for school community engagement and how they could support existing national consultation processes contributed to the exploration of alternative forms of stakeholder engagement in education. This has prompted the Teaching Council in collaboration with a range of Government Departments and national stakeholders, to request assistance from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Structural Reform Support (DG REFORM) for the project 'Support to improve local community engagement in Ireland’s education policy development'. Drawing from international examples, existing stakeholder engagement practices in Ireland, the contributions of a wide range of education stakeholders and a pilot exercise, this report proposes a model and roadmap for exploring the potential of school community engagement to further support policy making across the Irish education system.

This paper examines the strategies and practices of Ireland’s Office of Government Procurement (OGP) and how the Irish procurement system’s effectiveness is currently measured. It then applies the OECD framework for measuring public sector productivity to some of the centralised procurement activity in Ireland to better understand effectiveness drivers within procurement processes.

During the COVID 19 pandemic, countries around the world faced the challenge of how to certify student learning at the end of schooling, when in-person examinations were no longer possible. In 2020 and 2021, Ireland developed emergency measures to replace the country’s historic Senior Cycle examinations, or Leaving Certificate. The global health situation, school closures and the challenges to continue teaching and learning in this context made it a particularly difficult time for students, teachers, school leaders, families and policy makers. Ireland’s emergency solutions – the Calculated Grades System in 2020 and the Accredited Grades System in 2021 – provided recognised certification of student achievement and enabled Ireland’s young people to progress to the next stage of life, into further education or employment. This policy perspective reflects on the experience for stakeholders of the solutions that were adopted in 2020 and 2021.

Infrastructure is an essential consideration when it comes to both climate change mitigation and adaptation. It plays a pivotal role in achieving climate neutrality and resilience but is also susceptible to certain risks. As infrastructure has a long lifespan, it is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change over time. Poor planning and management of infrastructure assets can also increase dependency on fossil fuels and lock in climate risks. It is thus important that infrastructure is implemented in a way that helps address environmental and climate challenges. Developing effective strategies to meet environmental and climate objectives is one of the main priorities of the Irish Government. Project Ireland 2040 offers a unique opportunity to ensure that infrastructure investments support climate mitigation and adaptation efforts. Building on this impetus, the OECD has provided technical support to the Irish Government to strengthen climate and environmental considerations in its public infrastructure decision making process. This policy paper sets out a detailed overview of infrastructure planning, project appraisal and budgeting practice in Ireland, and identifies challenges and opportunities for environmental and climate considerations.

Infrastructure plays a pivotal role in achieving climate neutrality and resilience. However, infrastructure is also vulnerable to certain risks, and poor management of infrastructure assets can lead to increased dependency on fossil fuels and lock in climate-related risks. For this reason, an infrastructure governance framework is needed that can direct public investments towards sustainability objectives. To this end, the OECD has provided technical support to the Government of Ireland to strengthen climate-related and environmental considerations in public infrastructure decision making (i.e. strategic planning, project appraisal, budgeting). Building on Irish Public Spending Code and on standardised criteria based on international good practices, this working paper develops a new methodological approach to assessing the climate-related impacts of infrastructure and integrate climate-related risk and uncertainty in the appraisal of infrastructure projects.