Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the delegation which perfectly demonstrates equality and commend it on its work. We have been talking about this issue in the abstract for quite a long time so to begin to see it in reality is quite interesting. However, I am wondering about the choice of measures. In terms of demonstrating the potential impact of equality budgeting, there may have been stronger measures and greater challenges to be presented to the participating Departments. While female apprenticeship is really important, for example, access to education is even more important. Barriers to both access and to education completion are crucial. In terms of sport and given all of the controversies over the past 12 months involving the soccer team and the challenges faced by the Irish women's rugby team, the number of governing bodies supported by Sport Ireland's women in sport programme seems like a very weak measure in terms of addressing the actual challenges in the area of female participation in sport. In fairness to the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, it has taken on a very good high level goal. Did the individual Departments pick those measures or did the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform pick them? What are the plans to advance this? I am particularly interested in the measures under way in the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection. That is one of the Departments where an equality-budgeting analysis has the potential to have a deep impact and to address many of the challenges facing us. The same is true of the Departments of Education and Skills and Health. The measure chosen in the Department of Health is something to do with quitting smoking. Again, while the objective of reducing the overall prevalence of smoking is very laudable and important, one would imagine that in the context of equality challenges there are other issues in health that would need that kind of analysis.

In summary, who made the choice in terms of the measures? Did the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform at any stage challenge those choices and look for something deeper? Where is this going? Once the pilot is finished, where does the Department intend to bring this?