Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Ireland's well-being framework is the result of a programme for Government commitment to develop a set of well-being indices to create a well-rounded, holistic view of how Irish society is faring. The overarching vision for the framework is enabling all our people to live fulfilled lives now and into the future. The framework is a cross-government initiative, which is led by the Department of the Taoiseach and jointly sponsored by the Departments of Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform.

The second report on Ireland's well-being framework, Understanding Life in Ireland: A Well-being Framework, was published on 2 June. This report sets out an updated well-being framework for Ireland, which has 11 dimensions of well-being as well as sustainability and equality as cross-cutting themes.

With regard to language and culture, which were raised by the Deputy, Ireland's well-being framework is similar to comparative international well-being frameworks. The 11 dimensions allow for a multidimensional approach to monitoring Irish society and the consideration of language and culture takes place across a number of the dimensions. Cultural identity and language issues are considered as part of the dimension entitled civic engagement, trust and cultural expression, which includes an aspect of cultural expression, identity and non-discrimination. This dimension explores a person's rights to express his or her identity, for example, activities relating to specific groups such as traditional Irish communities, including Gaeltacht communities, as well as the cultural practices and expression of migrant or new Irish. It also includes the ability to express one's culture or identity or celebrate one's native language, placing a particular emphasis on the Irish language.

In addition, individual cultural participation is recognised as part of personal time in the time use dimension. Similarly, the social aspect of participating in community groups like artistic or creative groups and sporting clubs is captured in the community and cultural participation aspect of the connections, community and participation dimension.

The role of culture and language in the assessment of our collective well-being is very important to me. In this context, the Deputy may be interested to know that officials in my Department have begun early research with a view to developing a sectoral well-being indicator set relating to arts, culture, creativity, sport and language over the coming months. Such indicator sets will allow more detailed analysis of specific sectors with linkages to the high-level well-being dashboard which, by nature, cannot cover every area in detail.

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