Barry Vaughan Principal Officer - Department of the Taoiseach

Anna Visser Head of the Child Poverty and Well Being Programme Office - Department of the Taoiseach

Policymaking in Transition: Adapting Systems, Skills and Relationships

This interactive workshop examines how the Policy Handbook, ‘real world’ guide to policy formulation, drawn up by the Department of the Taoiseach can be rolled out in practice and enables participants to apply it to examples from their own experience.

The session also examines the emerging concept of relational public services as a tool for implementing the wider policy development framework and participants take part in an exercise to consider what adopting a relational approach would mean in the context of the wider framework.

Stefan Meuller Associate Professor - School of Politics and International Relations at University College Dublin

From Data to Decisions: A Practical Introduction to AI and Data Science for Policymakers

This interactive workshop provides a practical introduction to artificial intelligence and data science which assumes no prior technical knowledge of relevant software or statistical analysis techniques.

The session focuses on the AI and data science tools that are most relevant to policymakers’ needs. These include: accessing and ‘wrangling’ data, how to get started with data visualisations, and how to use local large language models for text classification

Lucie Martin Research Officer - ESRI

Tackling 'Sludge' in Public Services: identifying and reducing behavioural barriers to policy implementation

This interactive workshop focuses on ‘sludge’, which refers to the unnecessary frictions in the policy system that can impact access to programmes and services, and may undermine the effectiveness of public policies.

The workshop examines why policymakers should care about sludge and offers practical examples of sludge and ideas about what policymakers can do about it. Participants also get to conduct a practical Sludge Audit exercise.

Thomas Rochow Research Associate - Centre for Public Policy, University of Glasgow

Using Stories to Understand the Effects of Policy Systems on Low-Income Groups

This is an interactive workshop where participants create composite stories to explore multi-policy governance issues related to child poverty, examining how a whole system approach is required.

Participants get to actively engage with evidence and practice collaborative storytelling, highlighting real-world policy challenges.

Donncha Kavanagh Full Professor of Information & Organisation - College of Business, UCD

Building Ireland's Policy Foresight System

This interactive workshop examines the need to build Ireland's Policy Foresight System, discussing why Irish policy needs to pivot towards the long-term, using international examples to show how a foresight ecosystem could be developed.

Participants get to learn about commonly-used foresight techniques, when and how they might be implemented, and their strengths and limitations. They get to conduct experiential exercises to surface their own understandings of the future and imagine alternative futures.