Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move recommendation No. 2:

In page 11, before section 5, but in Chapter 3, to insert the following new section:
?5.?The Minister shall within 3 months of the passing of this Act prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann an analysis of the tax increases in this Act, and the total of tax increases and spending cuts of Budget 2013, setting out the continuing impact on people based on their gender, income, age, marital and disability status.?.

During my Second Stage speech yesterday I referred in detail to fairness as the reasons we were opposing the Bill. We do not believe the Finance Bill 2013 is fair. This is not based just on my reading of the Bill but on that of the ESRI, which has reported on the distributional impact of the measures contained in the Bill and what this means for ordinary people.

The purpose of recommendation No. 2 is to provide evidence that demonstrates the impact of the measures contained in the Bill on various groups in society, in particular those already disadvantaged because of the policies that have been implemented in this and in previous budgets. The recommendation effectively requires the Minister to produce an equality impact assessment of the budget, based on gender, income, age, marital and disability status.

When a similar amendment was tabled on Committee Stage in the Dáil, Deputy Noonan indicated his willingness to consider the substance of the proposal. I would be interested to hear the progress that has been made in that regard. The best possible scenario would be for the Government to commit to equality proofing legislation prior to enactment. However, should the Minister fail to do this, the very least we would expect of him is to assess the impact of the proposals after they are implemented to see what effect they are having. That of itself could feed into further budgetary proposals.

I ask the Minister to consider this recommendation or to give an update on equality proofing?