Ms Aoife Ní Lochlainn:

I will be very quick. In answer to the question about equality auditing and whether it happens elsewhere, yes it does. It happens in Scotland and is done through the Government and Parliament. They utilise the expertise of statutory groups and people who are expert in specific areas of inequality to put together a statement which is then responded to by the Government. This is all done in the open. The whole idea behind it is to increase transparency and debate. If one is looking to take the heat out of budget discussions and is seeking a more calm and rational debate, this is one of the better ways of doing it. That is because all the options and data are out in the open, so we can have a more rational debate than we currently have where everything is squashed into one part of the year.

A group of civil society organisations is currently examining the issue of equality auditing. I think it is called the equality budgeting campaign, but I apologise if I have the name wrong. It will be seeking to put together proposals that can be used in an Irish context. It would be useful if we could have something in place in the next year or two, as it looks like we will have further austerity budgets.

Replacement rates were mentioned, as were the long-term unemployed and people resenting the fact that payments are made to unemployed people or those on CE schemes. In a study by TASC on budget 2011, we conducted a distributional analysis and found that single people with children suffered the greatest loss in income. Some of that loss was brought about by changes in secondary benefits. I would highlight, in particular, payments to lone parents and also child benefit. These income payments have a huge effect on incomes to specific groups which often depend on them.

The CE scheme itself is designed to provide people with experience and work. It also provides much-needed local services.