Acceptable Risk: When Delay Has Its Own Cost – Can the Government’s New Risk Statement Change Public Sector Decision-Making?
From Paper to Practice: Moving from “Acceptable Risk” to “Accepting Risk”
Executive Leadership Conversation | 90 Minutes | CPD Accredited
Duration: 90 minutes (Online)
Date & Time: Tuesday, 8 September 2026 (09.30 – 11.00)
Participants will receive an electronic delegate pack of speaker notes & limited access recording along with a Certificate of Attendance recognising 1.50 hours of Continuing Professional Development (CPD).
Event Overview
The Government’s recently published Risk Statement signals an important shift in how the Irish public sector is encouraged to think about risk in the delivery of major public investment and public services. It recognises that while managing risk remains fundamental to good governance, delay itself carries significant economic, social and environmental costs.
The Government has set out a framework for acceptable risk. The challenge for public sector leaders is translating that framework into confident, proportionate decision-making. Moving from acceptable risk to accepting risk is not simply a policy challenge—it is a leadership challenge.
The more difficult question is whether changing policy is enough to change behaviour—or whether lasting change also depends on leadership, organisational culture, governance and confidence in decision-making.
For many public servants, the challenge has never been simply one of risk appetite. It is about balancing competing risks—delivery risk, financial risk, legal risk, reputational risk and public accountability—while making timely, proportionate and evidence-based decisions.
This inaugural event in PAI Leadership Conversations brings together three distinct perspectives, policy, economics and public sector leadership, to explore not only what the Government’s new Risk Statement means, but whether it has the potential to influence organisational behaviour and improve decision-making across the public service.
Rather than revisiting the policy announcement itself, this executive leadership conversation asks a more fundamental question:
Can the Government’s new Risk Statement change public sector decision-making…or is something more required?
Strategic Aim of this Event
This event is not intended to provide a technical briefing on the Government’s Risk Statement.
Instead, it uses the Statement as the catalyst for a broader executive conversation about how decisions are made across the Irish public service.
The discussion explores the journey from paper to practice…from defining acceptable risk in policy to creating the leadership, governance and organisational conditions that give people the confidence to accept proportionate risk in practice.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this event, participants will be able to:
- Understand the purpose and intent of the Government’s new Risk Statement.
- Recognise why delay should be considered a material risk in public sector decision-making.
- Explore the leadership, governance and organisational factors that influence decision-making behaviours.
- Consider practical approaches to creating greater confidence for timely, proportionate and evidence-based decision-making across the public service.
Who Should Attend?
This event is designed for senior leaders and decision-makers across the Irish public service, including:
- Secretaries General and Assistant Secretaries
- Chief Executives of State Agencies
- Local Authority Chief Executives
- Senior Public Procurement Professionals
- Programme Sponsors and Senior Responsible Owners
- Heads of Finance, Governance and Risk
- Infrastructure and Capital Delivery Leaders
- Policy Advisors and Public Service Leaders