Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank Professor Barrett for his statement and for his time. He has laid out some of the technical capacity and the two models that the ESRI develops and maintains. Over the past five years I have contacted the ESRI many times seeking budgetary analysis and information on things like distributive analysis. I have used such analysis, as have many other Members, to look at the regressive or progressive nature of recent budgets. What can the ESRI do that others, specifically the Departments of Finance and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, cannot? What quantitative and qualitative capacity does the ESRI bring to the table that the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission will not develop or that the Departments of Public Expenditure and Reform and Finance do not possess? What value does the ESRI bring to the table in the context of this new world of budgetary scrutiny? I hope there will be better budgetary scrutiny. What role does Professor Barrett believe the ESRI should play in this new budgetary regime?