Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move recommendation No. 7:

In page 96, between lines 4 and 5, to insert the following:

“69. The Minister shall, within 3 months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann an analysis of the tax changes in this Act, and the total of tax changes and spending adjustments of Budget 2016, setting out the continuing impact on people based on their gender, income, age, marital and disability status.”.

I acknowledge that on budget day the Department publishes budget booklets with tables showing how different families are affected by the budget measures. These measures focus on taxation but there is no holistic measure of the impact of the budget on different family types or people in different circumstances, be that in the context of gender, income, age, marital or disability status.The ESRI publishes a report on the distributional impact of tax, welfare and public service pay policy, but there has been an issue in that regard. To put it to bed, it is important that a comprehensive analysis of the impact of the budget be made after it is announced. This would go some way towards showing the full distributional impact. If the Department does not want to accept the ESRI's analysis, it would at least then have the responsibility of publishing its own, one it could stand over.

Equality budgeting is an internationally accepted method of dealing with inequality and poverty that is used in a number of countries. We are not asking the Minister of State to introduce a new dawn. There is this process which is used in other countries. Therefore, we are not asking the Department to do anything other than to use a process that has been tried and tested. One of the biggest benefits of adopting it would be that the Minister of State would not have to listen to me or my party colleagues bellyaching in the wake of a budget because he would be able to point out that equality budgeting objectives had been met. This should allay fears of having to listen to me or Deputies Pearse Doherty and Peadar Tóibín. Perhaps, therefore, the Minister of State might look at this recommendation.