John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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111. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the way his Department is pursuing equality budgeting; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32361/21]

John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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I served on the budgetary oversight committee in the previous Dáil. One of the outcomes of that was a positive recognition of and acceptance for the need for equality budgeting. What is the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform pursuing specifically in the area of equality budgeting?

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I recall our discussions on this and related topics during our work on the Committee on Budgetary Oversight.

Beginning with a pilot programme introduced for the 2018 budgetary cycle, equality budgeting is a way of approaching and understanding the budget as a process that embodies long-standing societal choices about how resources are used, rather than simply a neutral process of resource allocation. In practice, this means that equality budgeting attempts to provide greater information on how proposed or ongoing budgetary decisions impact on particular groups in society, thereby integrating equality concerns into the budgetary process.

Equality objectives and indicators are published every year in the Revised Estimates Volume and the public service performance report. The initial focus of equality budgeting was on gender, following which the initiative was extended to other dimensions of equality. Twelve Departments are now reporting equality budgeting metrics. An expert advisory group was established to guide development of equality budgeting policy. It has met regularly since September 2018. In 2019, the OECD published a report on equality budgeting in Ireland, providing 12 recommendations on how to drive this initiative forward. Implementation of the report's recommendations is now at an advanced stage.

In line with the OECD recommendation to develop an equalities data strategy, the Central Statistics Office completed a data audit, in co-operation with my Department, to ascertain the availability of public service data that are disaggregated by equality dimension. A report on this audit was published in October 2020.

Another OECD recommendation was the development of tagging and tracking functionality for departmental expenditure. Officials from my Department recently completed a two-day study visit, online, to learn about the approach of the French Government to tagging and tracking expenditure. This visit was part of an overall project to create a new architecture for performance budgeting. This project is funded under the EU structural reform support programme.

John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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That is a comprehensive answer. I liked the reference made. We all knew that initially equality budgeting related to gender and it then spread out to areas like disability.

Interestingly, this morning at the Committee on Budgetary Oversight, we had an interesting paper from the OECD which referred to some of our tax incentives around the area of climate action. Retrofitting and even the incentives for the purchase of e-cars are actually quite regressive. This is a view I have heard for a while, namely, that many of the incentives favour those people who have relatively positive incomes and savings. For example, when retrofitting a house, people need to have substantial savings before they can take advantage of the grants. The grants are generous but in order to take advantage of them, one must have substantial savings. Similarly, with the bike-to-work scheme for e-bikes, they are an expensive piece of kit and the tax incentive is generous but people need to have a lot of cash in hand in order to purchase them. This is another aspect we need to start considering for budgetary and taxation policy.

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for highlighting a practical example of how equality budgeting has to be part of the decision-making process. When the Government, for example, decides to increase carbon tax, how will it ensure that people who are the most impacted are protected from that? That is why the decision has been made, for example, to provide some of those resources to deal with fuel poverty, to support schemes provided for by the Department of Social Protection and to provide significant funding for retrofitting. An ambitious programme of retrofitting is being implemented across the social housing programme. The Deputy is well familiar with the work the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, is doing in that regard.

The interdepartmental group for equality budgeting is doing excellent work. It is facilitating the embedding of the initiative across all Departments. Equality budgeting does not belong to just one Department. It has to be a whole-of-government approach to make sure all of our decisions are guided by equality considerations.

John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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An idea that came up this morning about fuel allowance concerned the State or local authorities getting involved. In South Dublin County Council, there are 10,000 housing social homes. If the State got involved in the bulk purchase of energy for those homes, such as gas and electricity, it could result in a significant reduction in energy costs and offset the need to provide any kind of fuel allowance.

Similarly, one of the suggestions that would also have a very wide-ranging impact would be if the State or local authorities got involved in the bulk purchase and procurement of retrofitting services. I know that I am straying into the area of climate action, but I welcome the Minister’s response and, in particular, his awareness of the emerging issues regarding the need for equality budgeting and the fact that while the latter was initially limited to gender, the situation relating to it is organic and evolving.

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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We are publishing a great deal of material in respect of equality budgeting, as I have said, including in the Revised Estimates Volume and in the public service performance report. We have to embed thinking on equality budgeting right across Government. Work in that regard is ongoing. As the Deputy is aware, retrofitting as part of our submission to the EU under the national recovery and resilience facility, where we provide a first loss guarantee which will enable the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, to bring forward a comprehensive plan in respect of retrofitting homes. I reiterate that the Government is supportive of an ambitious roll-out of retrofitting of our public housing stock. That is particularly important. I take on board the points made by the Deputy about the fuel allowance and the bulk purchase of energy.