Written answers

Tuesday, 16 May 2017

Department of An Taoiseach

Programme for Government Implementation

Photo of Niall CollinsNiall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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93. To ask the Taoiseach the progress on the programme for government commitment, p42, to step up the use of impact assessments across Government driven by a new specialised section within the Cabinet secretariat; and if this new specialised section within the Cabinet secretariat has been established.. [22843/17]

Photo of Enda KennyEnda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The Programme for a Partnership Government, published last May, set out an ambitious programme of work with hundreds of actions to be implemented across all Departments over the lifetime of the Government. The first Annual Report on the Programme, setting out progress made on over 300 commitments over the past 12 months, was published last week.

Progress on the commitment mentioned by the Deputy is expected in the coming period.

It is of course already the case that the Cabinet Handbook requires that all proposals coming before Government must indicate the impacts across a number of socio-economic headings including the impact on rural communities. Impact assessment is also a core element of the current system of Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA), which is a requirement for all Departments submitting policy proposals to Government involving legislative changes. RIAs are published on the relevant Department's website.

Any future work in this area should also link with the work of the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service, formed in 2012 by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. In addition to its work to support better policy formulation and implementation through economic analysis and evaluation, the IGEES is aiming to put in place a framework of social impact assessment to incorporate the impacts of public expenditure policy on household outcomes.

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