Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The ESRI did state that the first four budgets of the Government were regressive and it also stated that in budget 2016 the bottom 20% received the least. Someone on €28,000 received little. We had the USC debate yesterday about the difference between those at the top and at the bottom. Social Justice Ireland said that somebody on social welfare was not getting the same level of help or support as someone earning €50,000.

By any measure, equality budgeting is an internationally accepted method of dealing with inequality and poverty. I do not believe anyone on the Government benches who would claim there is not inequality or poverty in this country. Approximately 60 countries either use equality budgeting or are in the process of doing so. Such countries include England, South Africa, Canada and African countries such as Tanzania and Uganda. This is not some kind of new dawn that we are asking the Minister to introduce. We are not asking him to develop anything other than something that is tried and tested. One benefit is that the Minister would not have to listen to me or other Members belly-aching after a budget because he could point to the fact that the equality budgeting objectives had been met. I would be interested to hear why exactly the Government opposes the amendment.