Scottish Rural Communities Policy Review: stage 2 - Ireland case study

7. Policy outputs and deliverable outcomes; rural proofing, evaluation and monitoring

The European Union’s LEADER programme, which began in 1991, sought to promote Community Led Local Development through a partnership of state and local actors. An evaluation of LEADER I highlighted concerns regarding the participation of local people in the development process. This led to a greater allocation of financial support for animation and capacity building in LEADER II (Kearney et. al., 1995).

The concept of rural proofing first appeared in Ireland’s first White Paper on Rural Development published in 1999 (Department of Agriculture and Food, 1999). This commitment was further reiterated in a National Development Plan (2000-2006) and also features in the 2021-2025 national rural development policy as does a series of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) metrics for Our Rural Future (Economic and Social Research Institute, 2003; Kelly, McGuinness and Devlin, 2024). These KPIs have been developed as part of the research programme between the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht (DRCD) and the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) (Kelly, McGuinness and Devlin, 2023). The purpose of this exercise was to examine a range of potential metrics that the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht could adopt in order to monitor the impact of national rural development policy. Additionally, the focus is on KPIs is aligned with a six-way urban–rural categorising of Ireland as developed by the Central Statistics Office (Central Statistics Office Ireland, 2019a). The Economic and Social Research Institute report notes that the application of a standard urban–rural dichotomy was of limited value in examining such metrics, masking the heterogeneity across areas. Using the six-way categorisation, a level of granularity is argued to be enabled from which to monitor the impact of rural policies and to measure well-being in rural areas.

In total 146 measures were identified by the Irish government to achieve nine key deliverables under the eight key themes of Our Rural Future. In addition to this 70 potential KPIs have been identified to monitor effectiveness using data nationally available from government departments, state agencies and the Central Statistics Office. To note: (a) 60 of the 70 identified have some level of spatial disaggregation for monitoring, 45 are needed at the six-way classification level; (b) currently only nine metrics are usable at this required spatial classification level; (c) 22 KPIs have been identified with some level of disaggregated geographic distinction to enable monitoring of the effectiveness of Our Rural Future and (d) there is distinction in outcome levels, with high level outcomes reflecting the importance of holistically capturing results. Of the 17 high level KPIs identified, four are available at the six-way classification level. It is suggested that the application of the six-way classification to more available data would enable closer monitoring of the effectiveness of national rural development policy. This would mean the key deliverables that could be monitored would rise from nine to 45. Overall rural wellbeing would also be monitored by 69 KPIs from four that are currently accessible. A discrepancy seen in the regularity of data collection is also noted; as a minimum this needs to be available annually (Kelly, McGuinness and Devlin, 2024).