Ms Caroline O'Loughlin:

The Chairman asked whether a statutory body is needed. Since equality budgeting was initiated, I do not think there has been a gap of expert guidance. This originally came from the Department of Justice and Equality, as it would have been at the time. We worked very closely with our colleagues in the equality division. They had done a lot of work on gender and other dimensions such as minority groups. It was very transferable to all the other dimensions of equality. Almost within months of equality budgeting being piloted, we establish an expert advisory group. We drew on the guidance of experts. That group included groups like the National Women's Council of Ireland, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, the ESRI and the National Economic and Social Council. We also have an academic, Dr. Seamus Taylor from Maynooth University, on board. There was plenty of expert guidance available to us. Since the expert advisory group has been established, I have also represented the Department on the national strategy for women and girls. Many of the skills and policies are very transferable to other dimensions of equality so I do not think that a lack of expertise guidance has been a problem for us when it comes to equality budgeting.