Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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The 2014 Working Group Report on Citizen Engagement with Local Government  recommended that a Public Participation Network (PPN) be set up in each local authority area in order to enable the public to take an active formal role in relevant policy making and oversight committees of the local authority.  It also recommended that the work of the PPNs should be monitored and evaluated regularly in line with best practice.

In line with this recommendation, the first National PPN Advisory Group was established in 2016 and ran until September 2017. Members of this Advisory Group, although representative of the various stakeholder groups, were invited by the Department and were not elected or nominated to their positions from within their respective stakeholder groups.

A second National PPN Advisory Group was established in late 2017, and is fully representative of all stakeholders.   To date the group has delivered a number of important initiatives to support the operation of PPNs, including the organisation of two annual conferences for PPN stakeholders in 2017 and 2018 respectively and the publication of two Annual Reports highlighting the work of the PPNs around the country.  Work on the preparation of the 2019 Annual Conference and the 2018 Annual Report is underway.

The Advisory Group is also progressing a number of new initiatives to support the ongoing development of PPNs, including an update of the PPN User Handbook in respect of which a public call for input was launched last month.  The development of a National PPN Communications Strategy and the ongoing provision of targeted PPN-related training are also being progressed.