Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As a committee we were not happy with the response from the Department.

There is merit in the position being proposed by the Equality Budgeting Campaign. We would like to opt for recommendation No. 2, namely, to invite the petitioner to attend a meeting to outline to us how equality budgeting works in a practical manner in other jurisdictions and how it might be taken on board in Ireland. The ministerial response seems to dismiss it as being impossible because of time constraints, a lack of information, etc. If it is being done in other jurisdictions and the petitioner has a valid case, however, we should hear it and decide whether to go from there.