Strengthening policy development in the Irish civil service

This paper centres on recent efforts – led by the Department of the Taoiseach under the aegis of the Civil Service Management Board – to improve the policy development capacity of the Irish civil service. It focuses on the rationale for a novel framework for policy development which consists of three interdependent parts, namely (i) evidence, (ii) feasibility and (iii) legitimacy. Developing such a framework is only the first step in reform as the fundamental challenge lies in embedding it in the policy work of government departments. International experience shows that this embedding exercise has to be driven on multiple fronts rather than viewing it as an outcome of enhanced training. The paper outlines how this is currently being done and some of the major issues to be addressed.