Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

I appreciate the Senator's questions. The well-being framework was launched in 2021. It is a positive and holistic way to assess how Ireland is doing as a country beyond budgetary metrics. The CSO's monitoring of 35 well-being indicators across 11 dimensions is also important in that context. It is progressed within the context of the whole-of-year budget process. We have the national economic dialogue. We have the well-being dashboard terms of CSO and the beyond-GDP quality-of-life assessment published by the Department of Finance. The Department uses the dimensions of the well-being framework to provide a whole-of-government perspective on public expenditure allocations. We also rely on a tagging initiative that provides a high-level summary of the way in which public money supports and enhances people's lives. We can set out more information to the Senator on that.

Equality proofing is really important and we are developing that very specifically. A number of different items exist at present. As I said in response to previous questions, the distributional impact assessments are important. The use of performance information and the extent to which different policies and programmes enhance equality and address inequalities are also important. My Department supports the broader initiative by facilitating the presentation of equality indicators in the Revised Estimates for public services and the public service performance report.

A paper on my Department's approach to developing equality budgeting is being completed and will be published following a peer review process. Ireland is in the process of designing an equality tagging framework that will support the development of a whole-of-government description of the equality purposes for which public resources are being used. The next phase in the development of equality budgeting will build on the work that has been done in the areas of well-being and green budgeting to try to increase transparency in the use of public resources. That work is advancing and I will be in a position to say more about it when the peer review has concluded.

The Senator also asked about IHREC. We support some of what she referenced relating to the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act. In terms of public expenditure planning, we support the funding of the IPA relating to public sector duty in that specific regard. A module for all staff on equality and human rights in the public service is spread across three different units. There is a public sector equality and human rights duty, with human rights in the public service as a module. I think 647 learners have completed that course, which is an important component of leadership in the public service and how what is set out by IHREC is progressed in expenditure management.