Mary White (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)

I am delighted to be able to speak on this year's budget and to talk about the budgetary allocations for which I have responsibility. I also want to speak briefly about my party's input into the budget.

There were no easy decisions, as everybody in this House knows. Every choice was made with acute awareness of how difficult these decisions will be for everybody in the country and they were taken with a heavy heart but with a full commitment to prioritising those most in need.

In the areas for which I have responsibility - equality, integration and human rights - I have worked hard to protect the necessary funding for the equality and integration framework. Our priority was to protect funding for the equality and rights bodies and I believe that the 2011 allocations - over €3 million for the Equality Authority, €1.46 million for the Irish Human Rights Commission and the 9% increase for the Equality Tribunal to €2.5 million - will ensure that these really important bodies can carry on their core work in promoting equality, combating discrimination and promoting, and, indeed, protecting, human rights. Indeed, last week I authorised €70,000 in funding from the Office of the Minister for Integration to the Equality Authority for a workplace diversity programme which the authority runs in conjunction with the social partners.

I have supported the equality and rights bodies' initiatives since I became Minister of State, be it the Equality Authority in launching a recent report into homophobic bullying, the Irish Human Rights Commission inquiry into the John Paul Centre in Galway, or the diligent work of the Equality Tribunal, in progressing cases of alleged discrimination and in conducting their work effectively at a time of increased cases over the past number of years. These are valued bodies, they do good work and I am proud of their ongoing commitment to a more equal Ireland.

The Office of the Minister for Integration will see a reduction, and this was a difficult decision. However, it will receive €4.18 million and the European Refugee Fund will receive €1.58 million. It has been a good year at the Office of the Minister for Integration with the establishment of the Ministerial Council on Integration, which has provided a forum for migrants to speak directly to me about how they feel about living and working in Ireland and any perceived discrimination or racism in our country. All four initial fora have now met and this institution will be a feature of the budget next year and in the years to follow.

On a good news story, next year I will be funding a migrant media interns project in which two migrants will be given six months' placement with local or regional newspapers to help local media document the experiences, issues and perspectives facing the migrant community in our country.

There was a positive response from local authorities to calls for funding proposals and I received proposals from local authorities which had not applied for funding in previous years. I am confident that local authorities, national organisations, sporting bodies and anti-racism initiatives which were funded this year will be adequately supported again in 2011.

I am pleased I have been able to protect funding for gender equality and Traveller support projects. My Department will still be providing over €0.5 million to national women's organisations. I pay tribute here to the National Women's Council of Ireland and Cúram for the voice they provide in progressing the agenda of gender equality in Ireland.

Recently, I met the Norwegian Minister for Defence, Ms Greta Faremo, whose reflections on gender equality were that experience proves that gender equality and full participation of women is a precondition for growth, development and peace, and those countries who neglect that need, pay for it by slowing down on their path to progress.

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