Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As the Taoiseach noted, the social impact assessment framework examines the demographic profile of public services users and how they are impacted by the Government's budgetary decisions. We are told these assessments should complement other budget impact assessments such as equality budgeting, which was first introduced as a pilot scheme four years ago. The 2019 OECD scan of equality budgeting in Ireland highlighted significant challenges and shortfalls in the initiative's structure and implementation. The OECD recommended that equality budgeting be expanded beyond the performance budgeting foundation to link it with other robust budget policy tools used in Ireland. It advised this should include expanding existing poverty proofing of policies to look at how poverty intersects with different equality dimensions.

Analysis of next year's budget undertaken by the Think-tank for Action on Social Change, TASC, on behalf of the National Women's Council of Ireland, NWCI, tells us the OECD's recommendations have fallen on deaf ears. TASC's analysis found the Government is unlikely to improve gender economic inequality, with lone parents likely to be worse off. It found the gender pay gap may widen, women may be at high risk of unemployment as pandemic supports expire, the increase in the minimum wage is insufficient to maintain the living standards of those trying to survive on low pay, and funding for childcare is still woefully inadequate. I want to echo the NWCI's call on the Government to prioritise gender and equality proofing of budgetary decisions in order that public spending will promote equality.

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