Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

The poverty impact assessment that is usually published with the budget is normally carried out by the Department of Finance in respect of taxation changes. As there were no taxation changes in this budget, the assessment was not attached to it. The poverty impact assessment should then have been carried out by researchers in the Combat Poverty Agency, or wherever. Those people, with all their expertise and independence, are now part of the social inclusion unit. The two Departments will have to examine together the overall impact of the budget, and that is being done at the moment. However, that does not stop groups like CORI, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and so on from doing their assessment as well. There will be plenty of objective analysis.