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Eoghan Murphy TD, Minister of State for eGovernment at the Department Public Expenditure & Reform, today launched a new online government tool aimed at promoting a greater awareness and better understanding of how government spends your money.

Speaking earlier Minister Murphy said, “I’m delighted to launch this new website today. This is a tool designed to allow taxpayers get a better view of how their taxes fund public goods and services. It is a good example of using open data to promote informed debate about the most efficient and effective allocation of public resources.”

The whereyourmoneygoes.gov.ie website is a graphical, easy-to-use tool. It will allow users to quickly drill into the various sectors that make up the €68 billion of this year’s government expenditure. It includes dedicated summaries, interactive charts and graphs for the main categories of expenditure such as Social Protection, Health, and Education, and will allow users to look back at expenditure trends of the last decade.

A brief explanatory video is available at https://youtu.be/I0K7MY0Pixw

On the wider context for the development of whereyourmoneygoes.gov.ie the Minister noted,
“We’ve come through a serious financial crisis, which was allowed to develop in part because of a lack of rigorous and informed public debate. We now have a responsibility to navigate our economy – which is currently very healthy according to all the main indicators – through uncertain waters. This is going to require difficult choices, so it is essential that those choices are informed ones; not just on the part of government, but also on the part of the Oireachtas and the citizen. That means giving people a source for trusted information which they can access in an easy way. That’s the motivation behind this new tool and I hope it will help everyone formulate and interrogate policy proposals, and help further embed a culture of evidence-based policy making.”

This website was built and will be maintained and updated by the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) a division of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.


Note to Editors:
More information on the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) can be found at whodoeswhat.gov.ie/division/per/OGCIO
www.whereyourmoneygoes.gov.ie is a graphical, easy-to-use tool for examining gross (Voted and Non-Voted) Government expenditure over a period of ten years. The data is presented in a variety of interactive charts, the elements of which may be clicked on to show a greater level of detail.

Website features include:
• Analysis of Government expenditure and estimated expenditure on a yearly basis.
• Dedicated summaries for the main categories of expenditure (Social Protection, Health, Education etc.).
• A high-level summary of expenditure related to servicing the national debt, EU contributions etc.
• Interactive charts with drill-down capabilities.
• Trend analysis of expenditure over the last ten years.

A Programme for a Partnership Government – https://goo.gl/fAp7Ct – contains commitments to improve innovation and reform in the delivery of public services.

The Public Service ICT Strategy – http://ictstrategy.per.gov.ie – prepared by the OGCIO was approved by Government and published in 2015. It sets out a new model for ICT delivery across the entire Public Service, delivering more efficiency and effectiveness in service delivery through a more integrated, shared and digital environment. The strategy identifies a number of key strategic objectives that will set the future direction for innovation and excellence in ICT within the Public Service. Implementation of the strategy is underway.