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

I advise the Minister of State to read Sinn Féin's newspaper, An Phoblacht, which as long ago as 1999 carried statements and stories in respect of that developer. An Phoblacht actually referred to him as a "rogue developer" and a "rogue merchant" and reported tenants stating at the time that he did not treat them like human beings. This was long before any issues arose in respect of Priory Hall. I reject the Minister of State's attempts to deflect attention from the reality, which is that the first assessment the Government carried out related to section 23 developers. Perhaps the Minister of State will indicate whether I am right or wrong in stating that the first economic impact assessment carried out by the Department of Finance following the Government's election related to such developers. The Ministers from the Department of Finance are not present but I can inform the Minister of State that it was the first assessment carried out.

I stand by the charge that the Government will not carry out economic impact assessments in respect of young people, the elderly, those with disabilities and others who need them most. There is nothing to fear about equality. The Minister of State should not try to deflect this debate off course. Even if the economy was booming again and everything was perfect, there would still be a need for equality budgeting. Even if the Government were in a position to introduce giveaway budgets, there should still be equality budgeting. It is a principle and it has nothing to do with how the economy is performing at any given time. As legislators, we should be able to see how our decisions affect individuals and not take anyone else's word for it. Anything we do that has an impact on people should independently assessed. That is the way that it happens in the North, in Scotland and in other jurisdictions which are not too far away. In those places, equality budgeting is the norm.

As I said earlier, the day will come when this State will be dragged out of the Dark Ages and equality budgeting will be the norm here. Let us be clear about this matter. At its annual conference last weekend, the Labour Party passed a resolution - No. 28 - which states that all future policies and Government funding decisions should be equality-proofed to assess their impact on people with disabilities. Why would the Tánaiste, Deputy Gilmore, and other Labour Party Deputies not vote in favour of such a resolution, particularly when it is the right thing to do? They should come to the Chamber now and vote against my amendment, which refers to "setting out the continuing impact on people based on their gender, income, age, marital and disability status". Let Labour Party Deputies inform those who attended or watched their conference last weekend and believed the spin that the party is not really in favour of equality proofing when it comes to disability benefits and that even though this has been a long-held policy, it is not being honoured.

Sinn Féin intends to continue to raise this issue and pressurise the Government to bring forward proper equality proofing. People should have nothing to fear from transparency regarding where the axe falls in the context of budgetary commitments made by any Government at any time.

See this speech in context