Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 22:

In page 37, between lines 18 and 19, to insert the following:“20. The Minister shall within 3 months of the passing of this Act prepare and lay before Dáil Eireann an analysis of the tax increases in this Act, and the total of tax increases and spending cuts of Budget 2013, setting out the continuing impact on people based on their gender, income, age, marital and disability status.”.

This is an equality budgeting amendment. The party has drafted legislation and tabled this before the Houses before and, unfortunately, it has been rejected by the Government. I tabled an identical amendment on Committee Stage but felt obliged to move it again because it goes to the heart of what the Finance (No. 2) Bill is about. If one is willing to introduce the policies discussed earlier, such as those regarding private health insurance, asking separated fathers to pay €2,500 extra in tax or cutting supports for struggling families, then one should at least be able to have that budget equality-proofed by examining the impact it will have on different sections of society. The impacts I have mentioned relate to gender, income, age and marital and disability status. I discussed this at length on Committee Stage and I will leave it there, because I expect the Government will support this amendment given the number of motions passed at the Labour Party conference last weekend calling for equality-proofing of Government policies to ensure the distribution of austerity measures did not fall too unevenly on any section of society.

Motion No. 30 specifically called for equality proofing in the disability sector. I hope the Tánaiste, Deputy Gilmore, has had the ear of the Minister of State and has told him that, given the endorsement the Labour Party conference gave to the spirit of this amendment, there is now a change of heart in Government policy. However, in case there is not, let us be clear that the Government has presided over unequal budgets over the past number of years. While it proudly states that the austerity measures must be implemented and we must serve the masters of the troika and the market, there is a fairer way to balance the books. As the only party in Opposition which has provided a fully costed alternative to meet the Government's adjustment targets for 2014, we have shown how that can be achieved.

Even if the Government rejects our proposals from an ideological point of view, it should still be able to stand up and explain the impact its measures, collectively, will have on those with disabilities, on women or on any sector of society. This is not something that is alien to policy. It is something that happens. I believe it is something that will happen in this House in the not-too-distant future, because equality budgeting is something in which we in Sinn Féin, and I am sure others in this Chamber, genuinely believe. Equality budgeting does not force the Government to do anything. If we had equality budgeting, it would not mean one dot in this Finance Bill would have to change. It would not mean that any of the cuts that were introduced, whether we are talking about the cuts made by the Minister for Social Protection, any of the savage cuts imposed on the health services by the Minister for Health, or any others, would have to be reversed. What it would mean would be transparency for the public in a situation in which people believe the Government has set out to target certain sections in society and to protect certain other sections. If the Government believes those claims are rubbish, it should put its money where its mouth is and allow for equality budgeting, as happens in other jurisdictions.

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