Ms Sarah Swaine:

I thank the Chairman for the invitation to appear before the joint committee and the opportunity to discuss the equality budgeting initiative. I have prepared a very short presentation to take the committee through the key points of the pilot programme, following which we will be happy to answer questions the committee may have about the equality budgeting initiative.

Our work in progressing the equality budgeting initiative flows from the commitment in the programme for Government to develop the process of budget and policy proofing as a means of advancing equality, reducing poverty and strengthening economic and social rights. There is also a commitment to ensure institutional arrangements are in place to support equality and gender proofing. These commitments are reflected in the national strategy for women and girls 2017 to 2020. Since last year we have been working to implement these commitments in a real and meaningful way. In so doing we have engaged with the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and the National Women’s Council which have been very helpful in guiding us in our approach.

Before I look in more detail at the pilot programme we have specifically adopted for this budgetary cycle, I want to highlight a few key principles that have underpinned our thinking and approach in this area. We see equality budgeting as a tool that can provide us with greater information on the likely equality impacts of proposed or ongoing budgetary measures. Greater visibility of such impacts enables us to better integrate equality concerns into the budgetary process. It also enables the impacts of budgetary decisions to be subject to greater scrutiny. In this way, we view equality budgeting as an important element of any well functioning budgetary system. We do not view it as creating a separate and distinct budgetary process for specific equality measures; rather, it is about the equality impact of budgetary policy a whole. From looking at international experience, countries that tend to do well in this area integrate equality budgeting into their existing budgetary framework. That is something we have tried to replicate in our approach by anchoring the equality budgeting initiative in the existing performance budgeting framework in place.

Looking in further detail at the progress we have made so far, on budget day a policy paper entitled, Equality Budgeting: Proposed Next Steps in Ireland, was published. I understand a copy of the paper was shared with committee members in advance of the meeting. The paper looks at the international experience of equality budgeting, the existing mechanisms in place in Ireland to assess equality impacts and also the pilot programme for equality budgeting in operation this year. Given the potential scale of equality budgeting, we have decided, at least initially, to focus on the equality ground of gender. From a practical perspective, this would be the most effective, as there is a wealth of international experience of gender budgeting and it is also an equality dimension for which a lot of disaggregated data are available. Our intention is to learn from this approach and what we will do this year and then expand the initiative to other policy areas and equality dimensions in the future.

In advance of publication of the Revised Estimates we asked the six Departments participating in the pilot programme to conduct an assessment of their selected policy programme area for its impact on gender equality. Following the assessment, they articulated a high level equality objective for the programme. They then selected relevant performance indicators and targets which were set by the Department to enable us to track progress towards achieving the overall goal.

Following that assessment they articulated a high level equality objective for that programme. They then selected relevant performance indicators and targets to enable us to track progress towards achieving the overall goal. Progress towards achieving the targets will be reported on in the public service performance report.

The next slide gives an idea of the diversity of the programme areas that are included in the pilot initiative and the types of high level goals that have been articulated by Departments. Six programme areas have been selected that cover a wide range of Government expenditure areas. Each of the Departments has also published a number of performance indicators related to its objectives that will allow us to track progress towards achieving the equality goals. Our intention is to learn from our experiences with these different programme areas this year with a view to expanding the initiative in future years.

In terms of the next steps, work is currently under way to prepare for the publication of the public service performance report. Following on from the equality goals and indicators published in the Revised Estimates, the report will contain an update on the progress and steps that are being taken by Departments to work towards realising their objectives. In order to guide our approach to the further development of the equality budgeting initiative we intend to establish an expert advisory group on equality budgeting. The function of the group will be to take stock of progress to date and provide advice and guidance on the future roll-out and expansion of the equality budgeting initiative. Alongside this we will also continue our work in supporting Departments participating in the initiative to develop the skills necessary to successfully equality proof policies.

That is an outline of the pilot approach so far and if members have any questions, we will be happy to respond.