Irish political parties are starting to focus on national well-being

I asked ChatGPT to tell me why we have governments, and it provided a decent answer: “to organise and manage societies, ensuring order, stability, and the well-being of their people”. What more fundamental reason is there for a state’s existence than the delivery of enhanced well-being and happiness for its citizens?

For the ninety years since its creation, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been considered the preeminent measure of a nation’s progress. Recently, however, there have been increasing calls to look “beyond GDP”. I was one of 1,000 delegates who attended the OECD’s World Forum on Well-being in Rome earlier this month to discuss how governments are starting to design policy programmes to prioritise well-being over economic growth.  

Now that all the political parties have published their manifestos for the Irish general election, how focused are they on improving your well-being? The answer may surprise you.

Searching for variants of the words “well-being” and “happiness” in manifestos reveals that the party that has taken the concept most to heart is Fine Gael with 32 mentions. The Green Party and the Social Democrats are in joint second place with a respectable 21 mentions each. Fianna Fail and Labour pay some lip service and share fourth place with 10 mentions each. However, well-being is all but ignored by Sinn Fein, People Before Profit, Aontú, and Independent Ireland which hardly reference it at all.

In which areas are the parties proposing to take action on well-being, if elected? Mainly through initiatives in health, education, and child development and protection.

Strengthening mental health services and improving access to care is a policy common to several parties (FG, FF, SD, Lab) and is often targeted at youth, although Fianna Fail also promises services for older people in their communities. Labour proposes a Minister for State for Mental Health and Wellbeing, while Fine Gael and the Social Democrats share an emphasis on preventative care. These types of initiatives have been shown to deliver powerful improvements in well-being for those that need them.

In education, both Labour and Fianna Fail propose a ban on smartphone use during the school day – although the jury is still out on the well-being impact of their use. Fine Gael promises to tackle bullying and online abuse, as well as expanding counselling resources and more supports for teachers. Both Labour and Fine Gael propose new digital literacy initiatives. While the Social Democrats’ proposals are more generic with a promise of more teachers, Special Needs Assistants, support staff, and guidance counselling.

The Social Democrats’ manifesto emphasises the importance of tackling child poverty to improve life-long well-being and proposes greater investment in improving early childhood education and care. Labour suggests similar policies, underpinned by a Charter for Children’s Rights. Fianna Fail proposes improvements for children in state care. And both Fine Gael and Sinn Fein commit to retaining the Department of the Taoiseach’s Child Poverty and Well-Being Programme Office. Any reductions in poverty will significantly improve the well-being of those individuals in later life, and better childcare supports will similarly deliver parental well-being.

One impactful way to improve the level of well-being in a country is to eliminate the misery experienced by the few, and many of these initiatives are designed to do just that. In parallel, there is benefit in seeking to improve the well-being of all.

Improvements in community well-being are identified as objectives of both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael’s environmental strategies, while the Green Party – correctly – cites the well-being benefits of protecting and restoring nature. Several parties link their prioritisation of sport to delivering improvements in personal well-being, with Sinn Fein promising every child an annual Activity Card worth €130 to spend on sports or arts activities. And the Greens want to convene a Citizens’ Assembly to consider the potential benefits of a four-day work week.

If we truly want to move the dial on Ireland’s happiness, where else do we need to focus?

Physical health is nearly as important as mental health so increasing the capacity of the health service to cope with a growing and aging population is essential. Unemployment is deeply detrimental to our well-being so strong supports for individuals to whom it occurs, and initiatives to eliminate long-term unemployment, are important. For those in employment, improving and sustaining the quality of work is what matters. While for the health of our society, supporting good community relations and high levels of interpersonal trust are critical.

The Green Party have the strongest proposals for embedding well-being at the heart of future government policy making. They propose the appointment of an Ombudsman for Future Generations to be a voice for well-being in officialdom, and Oireachtas committee scrutiny of well-being indicators for all public bodies and departments, as well as a new Ministry for Health and Wellbeing. Fine Gael shares the Green Party’s ambition for well-being to be more fully integrated into the budgetary process.

The evidence from this election is that Irish politicians increasingly see the value of moving “beyond GDP” in evaluating their policy proposals. Surprisingly, it is the existing government parties who appear most supportive of the change. Perhaps they are aware that it is in their own self-interest: research has shown that improvements in well-being are more closely tied to a government’s re-election prospects than increases in GDP.