Bulletin 25-5: Benchmarking the Performance of Ireland’s Public Administration, 2024

The NCPC is pleased to publish Bulletin 25-5 on Benchmarking the Performance of Ireland’s Public Administration. According to the recently published Blavatnik Index of Public Administration for 2024, Ireland ranked 14th out of 16 Western European countries and last among a peer group of six small, advanced economies. The Council has noted, however, that this is a new Index and should be seen primarily as a diagnostic tool at this point. Caution is recommended in interpreting the rankings. A greater variety of high-quality data on public administrations is required to foster an evidence-based approach to improving their performance. 

Ireland’s overall global ranking of 24th (out of 120 countries) displays sharp contrasts in performance across domains. This index shows Ireland as excelling with regard to HR Management (4th), Diversity & Inclusion (5th), and Tax Administration (3rd). The Index suggest that Ireland struggles under several indicators – Digital Services (83rd), Procurement (77th), and Technology & Workplaces (108th) – but as the Council’s own analysis shows, the rankings presented by this Index are limited by the use of outdated information and do not take cognisance of many recent Government strategies and reforms, including for example, the Action Plan on Competitiveness and Productivity, and the Accelerating Infrastructure Action Plan.