Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Ms Logan and Dr. Murphy are setting up the organisation. My view is that there is great value to the budgetary process and the policy development process for somebody to be providing an expert quality control, QC, role, just like IFAC does. IFAC is feeling its way into its role, but it is a very useful piece. Some Departments are excellent and have the expertise and the culture to really drive this. Some of them are brutal: they have neither the expertise nor the inclination to do such equality budgeting work. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission is a statutory body which matters, as opposed to being an NGO. This gives it weight that an NGO just will not have.

In the absence of an IFAC equivalent, the standing and sectoral committees will be beholden to each individual Department to give them an expert independent analysis that may end up making the line Minister look really bad. There is a valuable role for someone to play in this area. I ask the delegates to think about that role in their deliberations as they grow into this space.