Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 79:

In page 81, between lines 19 and 20, to insert the following:"Impact of Budget

66. The Minister shall, within 3 months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann an analysis of the tax changes in this Act, and the total of tax changes and spending adjustments of Budget 2015, setting out the continuing impact on people based on their gender, income, age, marital and disability status.”.

I acknowledge the fact that on budget day the Department publishes with the budget booklet tables which show how different families are affected by the budget measures and which focus, in particular, on the taxation side. Account is also taken of some welfare changes. This year the tables give examples of families with children and the increase in child benefit is taken into account. However, my argument, especially in view of the expenditure cuts in recent years, is that there is no holistic measure of the impact of the budget on different family types and people in different circumstances, be that as regards gender, income, age, marital or disability status. The ESRI publishes a report on the distributional impact in terms of tax, welfare and public service pay policy, and the Minister has taken issue with some aspects of that. To put that issue to bed, I strongly recommend that the Departments of Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform jointly publish a comprehensive analysis of the impact of the budget. The tables that are published on budget day are a help.

They go some way towards it, but they do not take account of the full distributional impact. If the Minister is not going to accept in full the ESRI analysis, which he has not done in recent years, then the Government should take responsibility for publishing its own.