The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has recently published four new case studies which highlight learning from different approaches to citizen engagement in Ireland. The Reform Delivery Unit within the Department engaged with researchers and organisations to write up the case studies, and CES authored the case study on Public Participation Networks (PPN).
Public Participation Networks (PPN) were set up in 2016 by the Department of Community and Rural Development to involve communities in the decisions being made by local authorities. It is still a relatively new structure in Ireland. The case study describes the role and workings of the PPN, the structures and processes they use to facilitate citizen engagement, the supports which enable them at national and local level and how the PPN structure is evolving over the course of its relatively short life since its establishment in 2016, in terms of reach and membership.
Capturing learning at an early stage helps to ensure a healthy and sustainable future for an initiative and provides valuable learning for other citizen engagement initiatives. The case study highlights nine learning points, and confirms that stakeholder engagement, implementation planning and project management are critical in getting new citizen engagement initiatives off the ground.
This series of case studies informs an overarching paper published by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform about citizen engagement, which is part of Our Public Service 2020, the framework for public service reform in Ireland.
Read the case study on Public Participation Networks here.
