Ireland Mid-Term Report 2016-2018 – For Public Comment

In 2018, the Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM)The Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) is OGP’s accountability arm and the main means of tracking progress in participating countries. The IRM provides independent, evidence-based, and objective ... published the progress report for Ireland’s second 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.... The report covers the development and first year of implementation of the action plan from July 2016 through July 2017.

In Ireland, the findings of the IRM researcher, Dr. Raj Chari of Trinity College Dublin, in the report are summarized below:

“Ireland’s second action plan included commitments to increase citizen engagement, to improve 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, 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..., and anticorruption and strengthened governance and accountability. While development of the action plan involved civil society proposals, the state decided on the final commitments, and the implementation lacked regular multistakeholder consultation. Moving forward, the government could establish a multistakeholder forum to consolidate civil society interests during the development of the next action plan, and establish an Independent Review Group to ensure consultation during implementation.”

The version of the report for public comment is available here and below. The two-week public comment period closed on 9 May 2018.