Ireland Action Plan Review 2023-2025

Ireland’s fourth action planAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen... includes one promising commitmentThrough the Action Plan Review, OGP’s Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) recognizes promising commitments that address a policy area that is important to stakeholders or the national context. Pro... to pass legislationCreating and passing legislation is one of the most effective ways of ensuring open government reforms have long-lasting effects on government practices. Technical specifications: Act of creating or r... on ethics in public office. The other commitments could go further to make ambitious changes to government practices. They would benefit from developing more actionable steps to achieve objectives for reform and measures to track progress.

Ireland’s fourth action plan consists of seven commitments. It includes a new focus on the needs of underrepresented groups and continues commitments on civic participation, ethics in public life, and open data from previous action plans.[1] The Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform (DPENDR) coordinated the action plan development in collaboration with civil society. The Open Government Round Table multistakeholder forum (MSF) was formed during the previous cycle and included twelve members with equal government and civil society representation.

One of the plan’s commitments undertakes a promising effort to modernize ethics and standards in public life. Based on a review conducted under the previous action plan, CommitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action... 5 intends to introduce new legislation. This would improve the accountability and transparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub... More of elected and appointed public officials, particularly with regards to conflicts of interestA key part of anti-corruption involves preventing or revealing conflicts of interest — when a public official is in a position to use public office for personal or private gain. Technical specificat.... This reform is expected to strengthen public trust in government officials.

The remaining commitments address important policy areas, but four have unclear potential for results. In some cases, commitments that carry forward existing initiatives could go further to provide added value. For instance, Commitment 1 plans for modest improvements to the Open DataBy opening up data and making it sharable and reusable, governments can enable informed debate, better decision making, and the development of innovative new services. Technical specifications: Polici... Portal and Commitment 4 continues the existing Civic Forum. While other commitments address ambitious policy objectives, they do not include concrete milestones towards achieving those objectives. Commitment 3 lacks milestones to ensure the uptake of best practices for the envisioned public consultation. Commitment 6 aims to increase the representation of women and minority groups in local electionsImproving transparency in elections and maintaining the independence of electoral commissions is vital for promoting trust in the electoral system, preventing electoral fraud, and upholding the democr..., but its milestones are focused on information campaigns about the role of councilors and investment in hybrid meetings.

The upcoming election—expected to be held by no later than March 2025—may pose challenges to the timely completion of commitments.[2] The IRM recommends that government and civil society stakeholders consider revising these commitments to develop more actionable steps to achieve reform objectives, strengthen progress tracking measures, and undertake more ambitious efforts to make binding and institutionalized changes to current government practices.

The commitments were developed through a co-creation process that demonstrated certain positive practices. The process began in March 2023 with a one-month public consultation.[3] Facilitated by BraveLab, the DPENDR then hosted six thematic workshops to discuss the 71 submissions received[4] with all stakeholders who made those submissions.[5] The MSF met every two months during the initial stages of co-creation and every six weeks during the final stages. Information on the process was publicly available through the Ireland OGP webpage. The DPENDR could improve the searchability of information by developing a dedicated online repositoryAccess to relevant information is essential for enabling participation and ensuring accountability throughout the OGP process. An OGP repository is an online centralized website, webpage, platform or ... linked to the OGP webpage.

Engagement between government and civil society in the action plan development varied across commitments. For instance, Commitment 1 was developed through productive collaboration,[6] while the milestones of Commitment 5 were mainly drafted by government departments.[7] A civil society representative highlighted that, unlike in the past, their input had not been actively solicited.[8] Other civil society representatives also noted that workshop discussions were not always reflected in the final action plan, resulting in discrepancies between the objectives and milestones of some commitments.[9] According to DPENDR, commitments needed to align with available staff resources, existing legislation, and government and departmental priorities.[10] The IRM underscores the importance of ensuring robust civil society involvement throughout the design process to enhance transparency, alignment with community needs, and the effectiveness of government initiatives.

Overall, while there were instances of good practice in the co-creation process, frequent staff turnover within the secretariat meant that some of these practices weren’t sustained over time.[11] It could be beneficial to explore strategies to institutionalize good co-creation practices, such as through standardized procedures and documentation guidelines, that could remain consistent despite staff turnover. Training and support for new staff would also help maintain continuity.

Promising Commitment

The following review looks at the commitment that the IRM identified as having the potential to realize the most promising results. Promising commitments address a policy area that is important to stakeholders or the national context. They must be verifiable, have a relevant open government lens, and have modest or substantial potential for results. This review also provides an analysis of challenges, opportunities, and recommendations to contribute to the learning and implementation process of this action plan.

Table 1. Promising commitment

[1] In the action plan, the commitments are listed alphabetically (A to G). For this review, we’ve assigned corresponding numbers (1 to 7) to each commitment instead (A = 1, B = 2, and so on).

[2] Antoin O Lachtnain (Open Government Association Ireland), interview by IRM researcher, 6 June 2024.

[3] The public consultation submissions are available at: https://www.gov.ie/pdf/?file=https://assets.gov.ie/253551/07d75216-7d40-482b-bbad-071836ad145d.pdf.

[4] See the multistakeholder forum readout from 31 May 2023 at: https://www.gov.ie/pdf/?file=https://assets.gov.ie/266998/de47adab-5cdc-4e26-9e92-d1e680e18409.pdf#page=1.

[5] Victoria Ronke Gbafah (Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform), interview by IRM researcher, 13 June 2024.

[6] O Lachtnain, interview.

[7] Transparency International Ireland, interview by IRM researcher, 30 July 2024.

[8] Transparency International Ireland, interview.

[9] O Lachtnain, interview.

[10] Comments from Sarah Glavey (Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform) during pre-publication review period, 15 October 2024.

[11] O Lachtnain, interview.