Ms Louise Bayliss:

The Senator referred to the gap between the announcement of the budget and the approval of the Finance Bill. However, this year the Finance Bill was passed two days before the ESRI analysis came out, so legislators were forced to vote on a Finance Bill in the absence of information from the ESRI, which supports our argument that the information is not there before Oireachtas Members make the decisions.

It is quite shocking that the decisions are being made so close to the budget day and there is no time for analysis. Even small and medium-sized businesses cannot make budgetary decisions without a considerable amount of analysis. With such a huge budget at stake and with the lives and welfare of children, adults and disabled people at stake, for the Minister for Finance to say that there is no time for analysis when even a small or medium-sized business would make time for it is quite shocking. It further supports our belief that equality budgeting is definitely needed.

The Senator asked what difference it would make. I am from SPARK so my knowledge is of lone parents. It is quite shocking that the year before 63,000 lone parents are to lose their entitlement to one-parent family allowance, in July 2015, the Department of Education and Skills could cut funding for FÁS and VEC courses for lone parents. If equality budgeting had been used at that time, such measures would not have occurred.