Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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50. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform his views on a recent Parliamentary Budget Office report (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45515/21]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I have noted the recent report by the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO), A Well-being Framework for Ireland – the Parliamentary Perspective.

In July 2021, the first report of the Interdepartmental Working Group (IDWG) was published setting out an initial Well-being Framework for Ireland. This initial Framework sets out an overarching vision of “enabling all our people to live fulfilled lives now and into the future”. The Interdepartmental Report notes that by providing an overarching structure the Well-being Framework will contribute to the development of a shared understanding of what makes for a better life and enhance strategic alignment in the identification of policy priorities, opportunities, and challenges as well as coordination and co-operation between departments and agencies.

The initial Framework has an outcomes-based approach that is focused on understanding people’s experiences across person, place and society. From my Department’s perspective, this approach builds on the performance budgeting initiative. It does so by placing an explicit focus on policy goals and evidence of progress toward achieving stated policy outcomes. This is part of a wider set of reforms that have increased the focus on the impact of public services on people’s lives such as equality budgeting. In the aggregate, these reforms seek to provide a well-rounded, holistic view of how Ireland is progressing, highlighting where progress is unequal and shaping policies that deliver better results for people.

The First Report on a Well-being Framework for Irelandset out a commitment for a second phase of consultation on the Framework. The ongoing development of the Framework will be informed by engaging with a broad range of stakeholders. I understand that the Department of the Taoiseach is preparing an approach for such a consultation.

The First Report on a Well-being Framework for Irelandset out an initial dashboard of indicators for the Well-being Framework. This dashboard complements the conceptual framework and measures life and progress in Ireland using a cohesive set of indicators. The creation of such a dashboard is in keeping with the practice of the OECD and other countries that have sought to develop a well-being perspective. The First Report also set out that, from Autumn 2021, the CSO will host an interactive version of the dashboard that will update automatically as data corresponding to individual indicators becomes available. In addition, the First Report also stated that the CSO is intending to publish a ‘how we are doing?’ section annually which will provide accessible infographics and trends.

In this context, it is important to note my Department’s ongoing engagement with the Oireachtas in the development of the performance budgeting framework, including Equality Budgeting and the Public Service Performance Report.

While high-level well-being frameworks are important in terms of developing a shared understanding of what makes for better lives and influencing public debate on strategic priorities, such frameworks do not in-and-of-themselves fulfil the ambition of improving policy and decision-making. My Department recognises the importance of going beyond presenting high-level indicators by developing a knowledge base around well-being as a policy objective and integrating well-being metrics into the various stages of the policy making process. In the Mid-Year Expenditure Report, my Department set out its perspective on how the Well-being Framework can be utilised to locate well-being within existing expenditure policy in order to inform efforts to improve the impact of public policy on people's lives and to build knowledge of well-being as a policy objective, in order to better understand policy challenges and inform the design and implementation of more effective public policies.