Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

First, I would generally support Deputy Hourigan's view in terms of gender equality budgeting. We have been developing the well-being framework which has been an intense piece of work and I take the Deputy's point about making it legible. The late Bobby Kennedy spoke much more eloquently about well-being than we are at the moment, and that is no offence to how we are putting all of the documentation together. It is a very significant bit of work but he described it as needing a set of measurements that measure. He said that GDP "... measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile". Then he went through education, children and so forth. That is what our well-being budgeting is about. It should be possible. If I am honest, part of the issue since this Government came into power has been a degree of responding to the major crises of the day - Covid-19 and now the war in Ukraine and the consequential impact of that on energy and the cost of living - in terms of budgets, capital allocations and so forth.

That has impacted to a degree on doing the body of work that is required and which the Deputy is talking about in respect of the gender inequality budget, as well as having the proper metrics that people can relate to and measure as opposed to generalities and language. I do not know whether the Committee on Budgetary Oversight has had any focus on that front-----