Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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That is fine. We need to figure out what type of framework we will have; what type of budgetary committee we will have; how it will interact with all the other committees; and the powers that committee will have. Because this has been established in other areas, we should look at what the best practice is. We should look for written submissions and look to have an engagement. At a later point we will want to discuss with the Chairpersons of those committees to see how it works in practice, what the pitfalls are, what we need to avoid and so on.

Equality budgeting needs to be stitched into the framework we are to agree. I want to put down a marker at the first meeting that any new budgetary proposal committee, which would have a role as laid out here in terms of scrutinising revenue-raising and expenditure proposals, needs to encompass equality budgeting. I hope the committee will propose that when we eventually report to the Dáil at the end of June.