Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I thank the delegates for their presentations. I do not have many questions for Mr. Shanahan because, in general, Forfás is doing a good job. He indicated that Forfás steps into the breach where private companies are not delivering innovations in certain areas and where public bodies are not providing services. Does it initiate particular programmes when it identifies a need? Mr. Shanahan told us that Forfás intends to create 25,000 jobs up to 2020. Where does he see those jobs coming from? The not-for-profit initiative is a good proposal because it will see resources going back into communities. It is the right way to go.

I am a strong advocate of equality budgeting. The impression I am getting, however, from replies we have received from both the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin, and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, is that the view from Government is that sufficient safeguards are already in place in this regard. The new whole-of-year budgeting reform, we are told, functions as a checking mechanism, with each of the Oireachtas committees having a role to play in ensuring proposals are equality-proofed. I am assuming the delegates would refute that position. Have they undertaken any analysis to support their argument for the establishment of an equality budgeting advisory group to oversee equality checks and balances in the pre-budget process? The Government's position seems to be that there is no need for such a body and that everything is already in place. How might we go about devising a baseline to show there is a need for such a body and that there are still instances in which inequalities arise? The question is how to find the resources to do something like that, given that it would require input from economists and other experts. A group that might have been able to play a role in this regard came before the committee recently when its funding was withdrawn. Do the delegates envisage undertaking that type of analysis and, if so, how might it be done?