Ms Louise Bayliss:

No specific research has been done on the impact of equality budgeting in various countries because the question is what would it be like if the equality budgeting had not taken place, and that cannot be answered. All we can point to is the fact that there is no equality budgeting in Ireland and the equality gap has increased. All we can do is point to the numerous ESRI reports and survey of income and living conditions, SILC, reports that year-on-year show that the bottom decile of our jurisdiction are paying more for the crisis than the top decile. It is too difficult to do a report. The research has not been done. Senator O'Keeffe said research had been done but we have tried unsuccessfully to locate it, because the research would have to say what would have happened had the equality budgeting not been done. It is a difficult piece of research. All we can do is point to the fact that without equality budgeting, the poorest and most disadvantaged in our society, the bottom decile, have paid more per household than the top decile. We need to close the gap. The research does not exist as far as we are aware. Dr. Clara Fisher, a fellow of the London School of Economics, has researched this, as have Ms Riordan, Mr. Keane and I, who are all MSc graduates, and we have not come across that research, so if Senator O'Keeffe does come across it we would-----