Governance
Overview
The governance structure of the National Financial Literacy Strategy aims to ensure transparency, accountability and leadership as the Strategy is being implemented.
To achieve this, the governance structure for the delivery of the Strategy consists of:
- A Financial Literacy Executive Board,
- A Steering Group, and
- A Stakeholder Community
Together they have decision-making, supervisory and advisory functions.
Their work is supported by the Financial Literacy Team in the Department of Finance.
In this webpage, we briefly provide an overview of the role of each part of the governance structure.
Financial Literacy Executive Board
The Executive Board is made up of three members. It is chaired by the Minister for Finance and composed of:
- The Deputy Governor for Consumer and Investor Protection of the Central Bank
- The Chairperson of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC)
The Executive Board is responsible for setting the long-term vision of the Strategy and providing leadership on achieving its goals and actions.
It meets once a year 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 the annual action plans and preparing an annual review to for the Executive Board.
The Steering Group meets every quarter and is made up of senior officials from the Central Bank, CCPC and Department of Finance.
Working Groups
The Steering Group can establish working groups as needed with representatives from the Steering Group and staff from organisations involved in the financial literacy sector.
These working groups can provide expertise and experiences in relevant areas and address 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.
Below we briefly explain each working group.
Monitoring and evaluation are essential for understanding the impact financial literacy initiatives are having. Both aspects are key parts of the Strategy.
This working group is set to produce two pieces of work:
- A toolkit to support stakeholders in monitoring and evaluating financial literacy initiatives (due first half of 2026)
- A report with recommendations on how to establish and oversee a way to monitor and evaluate the National Financial Literacy Strategy (due end of Q1 2027)
To implement the strategy, we must focus on developing evidence and research about financial literacy and financial wellbeing and the disparities that exist between groups in society.
The Research Working Group is tasked with reporting to the Steering Group by the end of 2026 on possible priority areas of research such as:
- 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 conference 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
- Build the skills and behaviours necessary to make sound financial decisions
- Improve their financial wellbeing generally
GMW is organised by the OECD and supported by national authorities. The GMW Working Group under the Strategy will help to support the GMW planning in Ireland.
In addition, this working group is tasked with delivering a report to the Steering Group with recommendations on how to further use GMW as a platform to promote both awareness and implementation of the Strategy for children and young people.
This report is due by the end of Q2 2026.
Alongside the Strategy, the Department of Finance also launched Financial Education in Schools – Guidelines for the Financial Services Industry.
These Guidelines aim to build quality partnerships between schools and the financial services industry and deliver financial education programmes in schools across Ireland.
This working group is tasked with reviewing the guidelines and producing a report on whether changes are needed. As part of this work, the working group with gather feedback from both schools and industry on how the Guidelines are working.
The working group will introduce any updates to the Guidelines in early 2027.