Mr. Richard Keane:

There is a problem because there is a merger in progress between the Equality Authority and the Irish Human Rights Commission. While we come here with a proposal, there are decisions outside our control. An equality budgeting unit should sit in that architecture. A commitment to economic, social and cultural rights is coming down the tracks, so we do not want to miss the train. We can do a lot of work here. There is expertise in Ireland from TASC and NERI, and there are statistics everywhere. If we need to do that work, a good next step would be to recommend that we bring all these people together and assess the feasibility of it.

The Scottish model is a good model given that it fits our population size. That is where we have been going, because in urban planning a participatory budget is being processed. That is fine, but we want it to be underpinned with an equality principle. Scotland has the added advantage of the Equality Act 2010, which means everybody has a positive duty towards equality. Although I am not an equality legislation expert, perhaps there is a lacuna in our legislation in that the Equal Status Act goes only so far, and enforcement and implementation are missing.