Public Participation Networks - Launch of the 2023 Annual Report

Posted on Monday, 27 January 2025
Main Image
PPN Annual Report 2023 cover
Page Content
Text

In 2014, the Local Government Act was amended to introduce Public Participation Networks (PPNs). They were set up to provide a mechanism by which citizens can have a greater say in local government decisions which affect their own communities. Real participation goes beyond voting (representative democracy) to a situation where people and government work in partnership to co-create infrastructure and services, solve problems and work towards the well-being of all in this generation and the generations to come (deliberative democracy).  By definition, such an approach requires a leaving aside of power differentials, and making a specific effort to ensure that the voices and views of people who are not traditionally influential are heard and taken into account.

The PPN recognises the contribution of volunteer-led organisations to local economic, social and environmental capital.  It facilitates input by these organisations into local government through a structure that ensures public participation and representation on decision-making committees within local government.  These PPNs have been established in every local authority area in Ireland. 

 

By the end of 2023, over 19,063 community and voluntary, social inclusion and environmental organisations were members of a PPN.  Over 926 PPN representatives were elected to over 343 committees on issues such as strategic policy, local community development, joint policing and so on.

Text

In the foreword by Minister of State with responsibility for Community Development and Charities, Minister Joe O'Brien states that "While there were many highlights in 2023, for my own part, I was very pleased to launch the PPN national awareness campaign. The campaign focused on communicating the benefits of PPN membership to community and voluntary groups. It also launched the new PPN brand identity and highlighted some of the many success stories of PPNs. Analysis of the campaign found that the audience reach for the period was over 2 million readers and over 12 million digital ad impressions. Climate action remained a high priority for PPNs in 2023, in keeping with the role they play in helping to meet our national climate objective of transitioning to a climate resilient, biodiversity rich, environmentally sustainable and climate neutral economy by the end of 2050. Under the Climate Action Act, local authorities must consult with PPNs in the development of local Climate Action Plans. In this way, the volunteers that make up PPNs can feed their invaluable on-the-ground experiences and knowledge into local climate planning. Examples of the work PPNs have undertaken in this area are included in this Annual Report."

The full text of the PPN Annual Report 2023 is available HERE.

×
This website uses cookies
This website uses cookies to improve user experience. By using our website you consent to all cookies in accordance with our Cookie Policy. Read more
Save & Close
Accept all
Decline all
Show details Hide details
Cookie declaration
About cookies
Strictly necessary
Performance
Targeting
Strictly necessary cookies allow core website functionality such as user login and account management. The website cannot be used properly without strictly necessary cookies.
Cookie report
Name Domain Expiration Description
CookieScriptConsent www.socialjustice.ie 1 month This cookie is used by Cookie-Script.com service to remember visitor cookie consent preferences. It is necessary for Cookie-Script.com cookie banner to work properly.
AWSELBCORS www.podbean.com 5 minutes The cookies AWSELB and AWSELBCORS are functionally the same cookies. The latter has an explicit SameSite attribute set because of changes made from Chrome 80 and upwards. 
__cf_bm .podbean.com 30 minutes This cookie is used to distinguish between humans and bots. This is beneficial for the website, in order to make valid reports on the use of their website.
Performance cookies are used to see how visitors use the website, eg. analytics cookies. Those cookies cannot be used to directly identify a certain visitor.
Cookie report
Name Domain Expiration Description
_ga .socialjustice.ie 2 years This cookie name is associated with Google Universal Analytics - which is a significant update to Google's more commonly used analytics service. This cookie is used to distinguish unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier. It is included in each page request in a site and used to calculate visitor, session and campaign data for the sites analytics reports.
_gid .socialjustice.ie 1 day This cookie is set by Google Analytics. It stores and update a unique value for each page visited and is used to count and track pageviews.
Targeting cookies are used to identify visitors between different websites, eg. content partners, banner networks. Those cookies may be used by companies to build a profile of visitor interests or show relevant ads on other websites.
Cookie report
Name Domain Expiration Description
_gat_gtag_UA_30714684_1 .socialjustice.ie 1 minute This cookie is part of Google Analytics and is used to limit requests (throttle request rate).
YSC .youtube.com Session This cookie is set by YouTube to track views of embedded videos.
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE .youtube.com 6 months This cookie is set by Youtube to keep track of user preferences for Youtube videos embedded in sites;it can also determine whether the website visitor is using the new or old version of the Youtube interface.
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. Websites use cookies to help users navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. Cookies that are required for the website to operate properly are allowed to be set without your permission. All other cookies need to be approved before they can be set in the browser. You can change your consent to cookie usage at any time on our Privacy Policy page.
Cookies consent ID:
Cookie report created by Cookie-Script