Abstract
Evaluation practice in Ireland has gone through a number of phases. Prior to the early 1990s, evaluation tended to be periodic and ad hoc. Due in large part to the influence of the EU a strong and comprehensive evaluation practice was developed during the 1990s. As the importance of structural funding from the EU declined in the early 2000s, so too did the focus on evaluation. Interest in evaluation then grew again in the late 2000s due to the effect of the economic crisis.
While it is important to be cautious, there are some positive signs with regard to the future for evaluation in Ireland. The big issue will be the extent of continuing demand for evaluation. Ireland has shown that when there is demand, the supply side can react to provide good quality evaluation studies. But Irish experience also shows that in economic good times, the demand for rigorous scrutiny of expenditure can diminish rapidly.
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Boyle, R., O’Hara, J., McNamara, G., Brown, M. (2020). Ireland. In: Stockmann, R., Meyer, W., Taube, L. (eds) The Institutionalisation of Evaluation in Europe . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32284-7_9
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