Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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I introduced legislation in this space a number of years ago, building on legislation in the last Oireachtas from Deputy Brendan Howlin on well-being indicators. It is good to see progress that is now embedded in the system. It is clearly working. From my personal perspective, I would like to get to a point over the next few years where this is how we monitor and measure outcomes in our annual budget process. Rather than looking at the quantum of resources allocated by the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform to respective Departments, Votes and so on, we can actually look more at genuine output and impact and measure it differently. I would like to get to the point where, some day, we are celebrating a reduction in the budget of the Department of Social Protection for jobseeker's supports and so on because that would be a measure of our success with sustainable employment and other aspects of policy. We can look at budgeting and public investment in a much more holistic way and this allows us to do that.

I have a couple of questions in the time I have left. I know the OECD has been supportive of the development of this process over the last few years. In their earlier contributions, the witnesses mentioned the introduction of equality and well-being tags in the context of the 2024 budgetary cycle. What will that look like?