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

Those measures simply do not stack up. How was the Government for equality when it cut supports for loan parents? How was that an equality measure? What was it that ticked inside the Minister of State and made him think that was a good equality measure? It seems those responsible saw all the reports relating to the challenges that lone parents face but decided to give it to them in the sense of taking more from them. It seems those in government decided to see if people could still survive following those measures on the basis that Fine Gael is the party for equality.

Of course, there will never be an independent assessment of what we are looking for to expose that what the Government is doing as anti-equality, because the Government has voted this down previously. I expect the Government will do so again today. The Government did the same last year, the year before and in preceding years. The Government has voted down proposed legislation to introduce equality budgeting several times.

The Minister of State referred to how an independent think tank suggested that the 2010 budget introduced by Fianna Fáil was progressive. He went on to list the regressive measures contained in that budget, including USC for low earners, cuts for disability and so on. Has it ever dawned on the Minister of State that in the following year the same independent think tank said that the current Government's budget was regressive? It said the same thing in 2012, 2013 and 2014. By God, the current Government must have pulled out all the stops if the think tank thought the Fianna Fáil budget was progressive but the subsequent budgets were regressive. That is the reality.

This is a simple concept. If those in the Government parties have something to fear from equality, then they should come to the House and vote against equality budgeting. If they embrace equality, support transparency and have nothing to fear, then they should vote for equality budgeting.

It is as simple as that. We need complete reform but we have been tinkering along the edges in respect of how we deal with our budgets. What happens in other jurisdictions? What happens up the road in the North, even with the limited fiscal powers they have? When certain departments there introduce their budgets, they announce them, but it is not taken as read that the measures correspond to what is going to happen. The measures are then independently proofed on the basis of a basket of indicators to see whether they hold up to certain benchmarks laid down in legislation. Those involved get a report which is then debated. Then they thrash it out again and the budget is approved. Technically, that is supposed to be what happens in this House. However, the reality is that what the Minister announces on budget day is what is going to be in the budget. That is, of course, unless the Minister decides to amend the legislation or changes his mind in the meantime. There is no independent analysis, bar the limited scope afforded to the ESRI in respect of the SWITCH programme.

I do not expect the Minister of State to change his mind. Sinn Féin and others who believe in equality, including groups outside this House, will continue to campaign for equality budgeting. We expected that the Labour Party would support the issue of equality. A valid point was made in this regard. We will celebrate the centenary of 1916 next year. We will celebrate the words of the Proclamation and the members of the Government will repeat them over and over again next year as they wave their tricolours and hope that the people do not read the Proclamation or what was said on the steps of the GPO almost 100 years ago. This is because what those people proclaimed is not what the Government is delivering. If those in government want even to try to get closer to what was proclaimed, they should have guts to stand up and support equality budgeting.

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