Governance
Overview
The Governance structure of the National Financial Literacy Strategy aims to ensure
transparency, accountability and leadership over the lifetime of the Strategy. To achieve
this, the governance structure for the implementation and delivery of the Strategy
consists of a Financial Literacy Executive Board, Steering Group, Stakeholder
Community, which have decision-making, supervisory and advisory functions. Their work
is supported by a secretariat.
The governance structure for the implementation and delivery of the Strategy consists of
the Financial Literacy Executive Board and Steering Group
Financial Literacy Executive Board
The Executive Board is chaired by the Minister for Finance and composed together with the Chairperson of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) and the Deputy Governor for Consumer and Investor Protection of the Central Bank of Ireland. The Executive Board is responsible for setting the long-term vision of the Strategy and provides leadership on achieving its goals and actions. It meets annually and approves the annual action plans and annual reviews of the Strategy.
Steering Group
The Steering Group advises the Financial Literacy Executive Board on matters relating to the delivery of the Strategy. It is responsible for drafting, monitoring and evaluating the annual action plans and preparing an annual review to be submitted to the Executive Board. The Steering Group meets quarterly is composed of senior officials from the Central Bank, CCPC and Department of Finance.
Working Groups
As set out in the Strategy, the Steering Group may establish ad-hoc working groups with representatives from the Steering Group and the financial literacy ecosystem. These working groups can provide expertise and experiences in important thematic areas and address specific operational needs of the Strategy.
To date, the Steering Group has established four Working Groups on:
- Monitoring and Evaluation
- Financial Literacy Research
- Global Money Week
- The Review of Financial Education in Schools: Guidelines for the Financial Services
Industry.
Monitoring and evaluation are essential to understand the impact financial literacy initiatives are having and is a core focus of the Strategy.
- This working group is tasked with preparing two deliverables for the Steering Group:
- A standardised toolkit to support stakeholders in monitoring and evaluating individual
financial literacy initiatives (first half of 2026); and - A report with recommendations on how to establish and oversee a mechanism to
monitor and evaluate the National Financial Literacy Strategy (by end Q1 2027).
Evidence and research about financial literacy and financial wellbeing and the disparities that exist between certain cohorts are the building blocks of the Strategy and are vital to the Strategy being able to adapt over time.
The Research Working Group is tasked with reporting to the Steering Group by end-2026 on:
- possible priority areas of research e.g. gaps or challenges in existing financial literacy
research, emerging areas of research, specific research on target groups identified in the
Strategy; - possible research partnerships or networks on financial literacy generally or on specific
financial literacy topics; - any other research area that may assist in the delivery of the aims and objectives of the
Strategy.
As part of its work, the working group will hold a symposium on financial literacy research in the first half of 2026.
Global Money Week (GMW) is an annual global awareness-raising event, aimed at supporting young people to be more financially aware and supporting them to build the skills and behaviours necessary to make sound financial decisions – thereby improving their financial wellbeing. GMW is organised by the OECD but supported by national authorities in individual countries. The GMW Working Group under the Strategy will help to support the GMW planning in Ireland.
In addition, the working group is tasked with delivering a report to the Steering Group by the of end Q2 2026 with recommendations on how to further use GMW as a platform to both promote awareness of and implementation of the Strategy for children and young people.
Alongside the Strategy’s launch, the Department of Finance also launched Financial Education in Schools – Guidelines for the Financial Services Industry. These Guidelines are intended to build quality partnerships between schools and the financial services industry in delivering financial education programmes in schools across the country.
When launching these Guidelines, the Department of Finance committed to monitoring and reviewing their implementation. This working group is tasked with carrying this Review out and delivering a report on whether changes are needed. As part of this work, feedback will be gathered from both schools and industry on how the Guidelines are working. Any amendments to the Guidelines will be introduced in early 2027.