Publication of the Second Report on Ireland’s Well-being Framework and Analysis of the Well-being Dashboard
Today the Government published a Second Report on Ireland’s Well-being Framework – ‘Understanding Life in Ireland: A Well-being Framework’. The Framework is about helping improve our understanding of quality of life in Ireland and measuring how we are doing overall as a country. It does this by bringing economic, societal and environmental impacts together under one Framework. It also places a particular focus on equality and sustaining well-being into the future. It includes 11 dimensions of well-being, which capture the areas that matter most to the people of Ireland for a good quality of life, areas such as housing, skills, work, health and community.
This Report reflects a second phase of work on the well-being initiative, testing and updating the initial framework, which was published last year (First Report on Ireland’s Well-being Framework). This included comprehensive consultation seeking feedback on what is important for well-being, alongside specific research including on sustainability. The Report outlines the longer-term approach and governance structures for embedding the Framework into the Irish policymaking system over time, including into the Budget process.
This includes the development of an analysis of the well-being dashboard, which will be reflected annually in the Summer Economic Statement, at the National Economic Dialogue, and as part of Budget day documents.
As a first step, a report reviewing Ireland’s performance across the 35 indicators contained in the CSO’s Well-being Information Hub has also been published today – Understanding Life in Ireland: A Well-being Dashboard. Overall, the dashboard paints a generally positive longer-term picture of quality of life in Ireland. Ireland performs well in 20 of the 35 indicators. Across the 11 dimensions of well-being, there are particularly positive indications across Knowledge, Skills & Innovation; Work & Job Quality, and Safety & Security. One dimension reveals a negative overall picture, that is Environment, Climate & Biodiversity. The data also examines groups of people that experience inequality across a high proportion of the indicators and also ‘tags’ and examines certain indicators to highlight their importance for sustainable well-being (spread across economic, environmental, social & democratic areas).
Speaking today, the Taoiseach said:
“I am pleased to publish this Second Report on Ireland’s Well-being Framework, which demonstrates the advancement on this important Programme for Government commitment. We can now begin to use this novel approach to explore and consider progress in Ireland beyond economic measures, commencing with the initial analysis of the Dashboard published today. I would like to take the opportunity to thank all of those stakeholders, experts, groups and of course the members of the public who took the time to input into the development of this Framework. This has helped make it a useful tool for better understanding – and therefore over time improving – the quality of life of the people of Ireland. Mar a deireann an seanfhocal: Chíonn beirt rud nach bhfeiceann duine amháin.”
The Minister for the Environment, Climate, Communications and Transport, Eamon Ryan, said:
“I am delighted to see Ireland following in the footsteps of other countries such as New Zealand, Germany and Wales in developing a well-being framework. The framework underscores the need for concerted action on policy objectives that have historically been secondary to economic growth. These include protecting our natural environment, safeguarding our children’s mental health and caring for our most vulnerable people. I look forward to engaging with my colleagues to ensure that the framework has a meaningful impact on Budget 2023.”
The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform joined in welcoming the Report:
“The past two years have highlighted the importance of measuring the progress of our country in ways that go beyond traditional metrics like GDP. If we are going to tackle the inequalities experienced across society we need to measure outcomes in the broadest possible sense. The Second Report on Ireland’s Well-being Framework provides a vital resource to help quantify the impact of public expenditure and ensure it is delivering the impact we want. The Government is determined that well-being will be at the heart of public policy decisions to ensure progress is made in areas such as employment prospects for marginalised individuals, improving access to life-long educational opportunities and delivering improved health outcomes.”