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One year ago today, I launched the first version of our public spending tracker. Today, I’m launching the next version: which covers over 108 billion euro in spend. The purpose is simple: help the State see more clearly where public money is going, use that information better, and get... show more
28,673 görüntüleme • 7 gün önce •via X (Twitter)
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Well done. I saw that @_williamkennedy is working off of your dataset in parts also which is great in terms of ensuring data quality. Two heads are better than one. And in the name of transparency - which you are both obviously committed to - having you, a government party member and William, an outsider - working on separate datasets is great for public trust.
Excellence contribution to what will lead to better government spending 💥💥💥
Great job, Mr. Dolan. Will it tell me how much each department or PSB is contributing to a particular NGO? Can we have a register of NGOs by contributions from state bodies?
@brianjimmyjoe Actually currently working on this. If you read the substack you will see how we focused on purchase order and payment data first. Read here: I also think accounts like @fiannafact have done a lot of work in the space.
@fiannafact Thanks a million Deputy. I appreciate all the work that you and others are doing to shine a light on where our taxes are spent.
Read more here:
It is a really important contribution to improving public policy. Chapeau
Thank you @BrigidLaffan and if you have any thoughts on the substack let me know.
Excellent initiative. Well done.
@MarcMacsharryTD Thanks Marc
Have you considered building an agent skill so that it can be queried in natural language? Great work
@darasRantings We are currently working on something. Hopefully will be able to share it this weekend.
Great job Albert.
On the topic of 'spending better' have you engaged in any way with @Nick_Delehanty insights into the questionable distribution of social housing across Dublin? Seems like something you should be highlighting if you're being sincere about all this.
Very well done - keep going and please turn your attention to the plethora of "N" GOs, thank you
Loved it so much we borrowed your data and drilled into the housing-specific bits. Lots of expenditure is vaguely labelled, but you can reconstruct some of it from the supplier.
@EdwardDixon3 Glad to share it. That is exactly one of the objectives of this project. To do the groundwork once, make the data easier to access, and then let journalists, researchers and others take it further in areas they know well.
Very positive move Albert, but we have yet to see any political party or civil servants get sanctioned for wasting taxpayers money. Yet we see our spending balloon over the last 10 years with no tangible benefit to the Irish taxpayers or people only for low skilled migrants and asylum seekers who are handed the keys to the kingdom! Yours sincerely a Furious taxpayer!
Great site to see who is walking away with the money after building the bicycle shed.
This is brilliant
Transparency and facts are vital in any democracy and it cuts out the waffle,misinformation and spin.☕️👍😊
Well done team
@jackcantillon Thank you and hopefully more to come.
@McAuleyGer Its talked about in the substack
Well done @albertdolan_ Superb work. C
Thank you @ciarancannon
Any chance that you could see where all our money is being used by Ukraine
@john_mcguirk Can you explain why the irish government is spending money on Netflix productions that aren’t even produced in Ireland ??
Likely referring to Section 481 film tax credit. It isn’t simply the Government paying Netflix to make productions overseas, the incentive is tied to qualifying expenditure connected to Ireland, including eligible production, post-production and VFX work. Ireland has built a strong and growing film and screen industry, supporting skilled jobs and Irish businesses. Tax incentives like Section 481 are designed to attract international productions and keep that work and investment coming into Ireland.
@john_mcguirk thanks, yes i get the film scheme stuff. i used to avail of the tax breaks before they were abolished. but this netflix thing is produced and filmed in New Mexico? i cant see the irish connection. good work, thanks for taking the time to respond.
Thank you @albertdolan_ Can you please look at getting the government to use their huge bargaining power to buy cheap electricity for every resident in the State? They have the power, you have the brains! Thanks again for all that you're doing for us.
Maybe the biggest data story is what is not in there. And, so many records that just say "capital expenditure". Great work!
Absolutely,that may be one of the biggest findings. The data tells us a lot, but what is missing can be just as revealing (and useful). That is why I keep stressing that visibility is only the first step. can surface the records that exist; it also exposes where the underlying reporting standard is too weak to support proper analysis. The next job is better data at source: clearer descriptions, machine-readable reporting and ultimately the Golden Thread linking the payment back to the contract and what was delivered.
It would be great to ask why public procurement means the state spends huge sums advertising on global web platforms, even though it knows they are not regulated on advertising or information. Advertising on radio means you know your ad will not be beside unacceptable content.
What do the Taoiseach and Tanasite think of this are they in favour of you telling us people ?
@barrettmuego I have the backing of my party. See both the substack and the dail record.
So your duplicating the work of the Auditor General Why ? Is the Auditors office incompetent or is this a vehicle to further your career Your Paddy Dodge is commendable but what do you do with any info gleaned Will heads roll Will money be saved I'm not convinced
Thank you for the comment. I do not believe the C&AG is not being duplicated here. The C&AG (and or the state) does not hold a single, connected dataset of State procurement transactions either. (Note the read page 28 The information sits across public bodies and different systems. brings together the published purchase-order/payment layer; the next step is connecting that to the tender, contract and delivery behind it. My Substack explains the distinction: the problem is not that no part of the State has information, but that there is no consistent system-wide view connecting spending to contracts, final costs and delivery. On 11th June I asked the C&AG about the Golden Thread at PAC on. His response was: “What the Deputy has outlined is a very good thing. It is something I would like to see achieved, but it is a complex process.” He then explained exactly why: a tender, awarded contract, purchase order and eventual payment can all have different values, and a single project may involve multiple tenders and suppliers. The Department and OGP made the same point. David Moloney said the objective was “linking the tender to the award to the outcome”, while David O’Sullivan said there was merit in linking expenditure to contracts and that the Golden Thread was “in everybody’s interest.” As for what we do with the information: the objective is to give Government, auditors, the Oireachtas and public bodies better management information so problems can be identified earlier, contracts compared, prices benchmarked and lessons carried into the next procurement. That is where the potential savings come from.
Commendable but pointless The system won't allow meaningful reform Historical the victims of politics are truth, morality and integrity Public Service is mostly Self Service imo I wish you luck and hope you dont get infected Remember absolute power corrupts absolutely
Brilliant
Excellent; now make the case for taking a scythe to the flagrant misspending of public money, especially on ideological causes, and give it back to us, so we can spend it as we see fit.
I’m surprised you were allowed do this 😂😂
Any chance of a motorway to the northwest of the country Albert
Well done.Potentially transformative!
Whereas this tool has existed for years and is much better
It is a great site, but it is showing a different layer of public spending. Where Your Money Goes presents gross voted and non-voted expenditure by sector and programme. It is excellent for understanding how Government allocates expenditure at a high level (and total spend at that level), but it does not show the underlying transaction-level purchase orders and payments: who was paid, for what, and how much on each transaction. Its own description says the 2025–26 figures are estimates rather than actual expenditure. That transaction layer is what is trying to make visible. As I explain in the Substack, budgets and accounts tell you the plan and the high-level outturn; the purchase-order/payment data gets you closer to the receipt. And there is a bigger issue here: the State still does not have a consistent central figure for actual procurement expenditure. The frequently cited €18.5bn figure has been described in parliamentary work as an estimate based on procurement data rather than a national sum of actual payments, while Government has now started work to resume procurement-spend collection so estimated contract values can be compared with actual spend. So I would not see the two tools as competitors. Where Your Money Goes: where expenditure is allocated. the published transaction layer underneath it. Golden Thread: connecting those payments back to the tender, contract and eventual outcome. That last link is the piece we still need. Also see screenshot and
A citizen developer can do a better job than all of Irelands broken systems combined
Gonna be interesting to see how they waste 108 BILLION A YEAR!!!
@john_mcguirk So you mean with all the accountants etc. they didn’t know where all the money was going?
