National Social Monitor - Towards Wellbeing For All

The Programme for Government 2020 commitment to the development of a well-being framework has been delivered on with the Second Report on Ireland’s Well-being Framework published in June 2022. As part of that commitment, a Well-being Information Hub was developed and maintained by the Central Statistics Office (CSO). This “reports on the Well-being of the nation and attempts to answer this essential question – how we are doing as a country, as communities and as individuals”. So how are we doing? In a country that still is unable to provide secure affordable housing, timely access to healthcare, support children with extra educational needs and has almost 595,000 people living in poverty, we have a lot of work to do. 

This edition of National Social Monitor ‘Towards Wellbeing for All ’ sets out some specific policies that Social Justice Ireland has consistently advocated for as well as responses to a survey Social Justice Ireland produced, asking people to rank a set of six indicators under each of the Well-being Framework dimensions from one to six, with one being the least important and six being the most important. The six indicators included the indicators used in the Dashboard and datasets readily available from the CSO and other reputable sources. This survey was circulated over the Summer months through our social media channels, our Weekly Digest, and our Members Bulletin. What follows is based on the responses to this survey and our policy proposals under each of the 11 dimensions.

This edition of Social Justice Ireland’s National Social Monitor does not attempt to cover all the possibilities and challenges posed by a Wellbeing Framework. This paper is offered as a contribution to the ongoing public debate.