ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that while there are common aspects of an evaluation culture, in practice there are differing forces shaping evaluation culture in Ireland, each with differing values at their core and that it is in the interplay of value conflicts between these forces that evaluation cultures are shaped. It explores the interplay of these international and national forces on the development of evaluation culture in two significant areas of the public service: the civil service and education sectors. In the Irish context, the experience in both the education and civil service cases is that there is no such thing as an evaluation culture as ex-emplified by evaluation practice. During the boom times of the Celtic Tiger years, values of partnership and consensus prevailed. These helped shape an evaluation practice based primarily around improvement of programs in government departments and light-touch, relatively evidence-free evaluation in schools.
