Country Profile – Ireland

Organisations

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Organization responsible for education	Role of the organization	Website
Administration of education is centralised.
Department of Education and Skills (DES) under the direction of the Minister for Education and Skills DES has 9 regional offices. The following six agencies work under direction of the Department:	Appointed for administration and is responsible for the following tasks: setting the general regulations for the recognition of schools approving the curriculum developed by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment in early learning, primary and post-primary contexts establishing regulations for management, resourcing and staffing of schools negotiating teachers’ salary scales and conditions determining the conditions governing qualifications of teachers on the advice of the Teaching Council of Ireland approving staff numbers in schools and education and training boards determining the frameworks regarding the budget and the staff for Further and Higher Education and Training giving advice to the Minister regarding the analysis of available data and extensive engagement with stakeholders based on the policy cooperating with stakeholders through their national representative bodies, such as parents’ councils, school management bodies, teacher unions, employers and social partners, community organisations, institutional associations, special education organisations, other Government Departments, European Union, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation Coordinating and implementing the policy approved by the Minister Acknowledging and funding the schools, Higher Education Authority and other education organisations through paying the salaries of the teachers and the other staff. The payment is not the responsibility of the Department if a coordinating intermediate exists. Discussing the educational staff’s pay and conditions Providing services for children with special educational needs with the help of the National Council for Special Education Assuring the quality and ensuring the professional development in the field of education Gathering data and participating in research Maintaining international relations and supporting the internationalisation of education	www.education.ie/en
National Council for Curriculum and Assessment	Advising on and developing the curriculum for primary and secondary schools, and for early childhood education	https://ncca.ie/en
National Council for Special Education	Advising on policy and education services for persons with special educational needs focusing on children	https://ncse.ie/
State Examinations Commission	Controlling the Junior Certificate at the end of the lower-secondary school and the Leaving Certificate at the end of the upper secondary education	www.examinations.ie
SOLAS	Responsible for policy, coordination and funding of programmes of Further Education and Training	www.solas.ie
Higher Education Authority		https://hea.ie/
Quality and Qualifications in Ireland	Maintaining the national framework of qualifications in the educational and training sector, providing external quality assurance tasks for further and higher education and training, coordinating the international education	https://www.qqi.ie/
Regional clusters formed by higher education institutions	To meet regional needs
Post-primary and primary schools	Owned and managed by local organisations. Each school is managed by a management board representative of parents, teachers, local community and trustees. The schools have to obey the policy, funding, curriculum and staffing framework approved by the Department of Education and Skills.
Source: European Commission / EACEA – National Policies Platform / Eurydice / Ireland Overview: https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-policies/eurydice/content/ireland_en

Expenditure on educational institutions ISCED (2011) (Million EUR)

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Year	Expenditure	Primary education	Lower secondary education	Upper secondary education	Total
2012	Current expenditure	3 587,8	1 675,0	1 408,3	6 671,1
	Capital expenditure	204,6	76,8	62,7	344,1
	Total	3 792,4	1 751,8	1 471,1	7 015,3
	Share of capital expenditure (%)	5,4	4,4	4,3	4,9
2013	Current expenditure	3 302,9	1 584,7	1 352,5	6 240,1
	Capital expenditure	234,2	74,3	62,8	371,3
	Total	3 537,1	1 659,0	1 415,3	6 611,4
	Share of capital expenditure (%)	6,6	4,5	4,4	5,6
2014	Current expenditure	3 250,2	1 540,9	1 363,4	6 154,5
	Capital expenditure	276,9	76,7	66,4	420,0
	Total	3 527,1	1 617,7	1 429,8	6 574,6
	Share of capital expenditure (%)	7,9	4,7	4,6	6,4
2015	Current expenditure	3 442,4	1 500,8	1 325,9	6 269,1
	Capital expenditure	266,5	106,2	92,0	464,7
	Total	3 709,0	1 607,0	1 417,9	6 733,9
	Share of capital expenditure (%)	7,2	6,6	6,5	6,9
2016	Current expenditure	3 536,9	1 491,2	1 397,0	6 425,1
	Capital expenditure	286,7	151,3	139,9	577,9
	Total	3 823,6	1 642,4	1 536,9	7 002,9
	Share of capital expenditure (%)	7,5	9,2	9,1	8,3
Source: Eurostat (online data code: educ_uoe_fini01)

Procurement Procedure

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Public procurement system is quite modern and high performing, many services are offered online nationally. The system underwent a transformation into a more centralised and more standardised public procurement system. Tendering responsibilities still belong to the individual contracting authorities (at the state level and local level).

Office of Government Procurement (OGP) under the direction of the Ministry for Public Expenditure and Reform (MPER): Its tasks and main responsibilities:

forming the public procurement policy
disseminating best practices
providing general guidance regarding the processes
managing the e-procurement strategy of the government
acting as the central purchasing body and oversight body
standardising procurement process
achieving savings by implementing a systematic approach to public procurement
managing the e-procurement platform and e-Tenders.

The oversight responsibilities belong to different boards and the management of individual contracting authorities together with the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General implementing external checks of procurement in order to ensure compliance with the procurement regulation.

Irish High Court: responsible for first instance review processes.

Supreme Court: the last recourse instance

A complete public procurement process can last up to 3 years however it can be shortened to 6-12 months in some cases such as if the participating organisations ask for transferring the case to the commercial division of the High Court.

Sources:
European Commission / EACEA – National Policies Platform / Eurydice / Ireland Overview:
https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-policies/eurydice/content/ireland_en
Public procurement – Study on administrative capacity in the EU Ireland Country Profile:
https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/policy/how/improving-investment/public-procurement/study/country_profile/ie.pdf

Number of schools K-12	Number of teachers K-12	Number of students K-12	Number of computers per student K-12
8.1932 (2018)^[1]	65.815 (2018)^[1]	1.038.859 (2018)^[1]	0,14 (2014 - but there has since been 210m investment in ICT infrastructure)^[2]

Type of schools	Source of funds
Pre-school	Private (partially funded through the Early Childhood Care and Education Scheme)
Primary	State-funded (Department of Education andSkills)
Secondary	State-funded (Department of Education and Skills)
Source: https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/education/the_irish_education_ system/overview_of_the_irish_education_system.html

Year	Primary education	Lower secondary education	Upper secondary education	Total
2012	3725,5	1703,3	1671,7	7100,5
2013	3474,2	1605,9	1602,6	6682,7
2014	346,3	1565,9	1605,3	6635,5
2015	3642,0	1643,7	1645,4	6931,1
2016	3771,2	1742,8	1849,4	7363,4
Source: Eurostat (online data codes: educ_uoe_fine01)

Year	Amount in (€)	Main pillars of investments	Share of pillars (%)
2016-2023	€210 million	ICT equipment	100%
2016-2023	€25 million	Incorporating digital learning	100%

Country Profile - Ireland

Education Procurement in Ireland

Numbers

Legislation of Education

Organisations

Funding of education

Public expenditure on education ISCED (2011) (million EUR)

Expenditure on educational institutions ISCED (2011) (Million EUR)

Investment plan for education / ICT in education

Procurement Procedure

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