Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I was thinking about the non-statutory and then statutory role of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council. Under its mandate, it provides very comprehensive detailed analysis. This mandate is very simple, and primarily comes from the treaty and ensuring we meet the deficit and debt rules and the other rules contained in the austerity treaty at the time. We have empowered a body to do this, which is good, and I like independent voices to come forward with analysis.

Just as important to ensure we hit the European targets laid on the State is to have analysis on how the measures introduced by the Government or any future government impact on various groups of people. We do not have a comprehensive assessment. The Minister mentioned the 13 tables in the budget book. I sat in the "Prime Time" studio the night the budget was announced, when an expert from one of the accountancy firms went through it and was asked by people how it would impact on them. What is not included in the tables is, for example, the fact that one will pay water charges as a household and that one will pay more if one's child is attending third level education, or the impact on lone parents of certain measures which were announced several years ago but will kick in next year. None of this is captured, which is why we need analysis of equality budgeting to inform the debate on how we budget.

This is a mess. I do not want to go over old ground, but we receive no information prior to the budget being presented. A sum of €1 billion may appear 72 hours before the budget is announced. The Minister presents the budget and it is a done deal. The Opposition is constitutionally barred from tabling an amendment which would amend a figure or timeframe, or do anything which would place a charge on the people or bring money to the State.

We also do not have impact assessments on how measures work after introduction. The Department may carry out a study two or three years after a measure is introduced, which has been done on a thematic basis, but we have no comprehensive assessment of how a measure impacts on certain sections of society. The ESRI reports are not complete as they only look at certain parts of the budget. The one before last showed the impact was borne by the least well-off, but did not factor in the full weight of the property tax or other social welfare measures which were not completely captured within it.

There is a need for this. In the way there are austerity rules and debt rules at European level, there is a need for us to ensure we meet those targets. Just as we have a group of experts which is tasked with furnishing this committee and the Minister with reports on a regular basis there should be a group of people to look after our citizens and make sure there is an evidence-based report that informs Government and the Opposition of the impacts of these measures.