Michael D'Arcy (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

A Programme for a Partnership Government sets out a commitment to developing a process of budget policy proofing as a means of advancing equality, reducing poverty and strengthening economic and social rights. In addition to considering the level of expenditure, equality budgeting focuses on how money is spent and the impact it has, and it considers tax forgone.

In his budget 2019 statement in October, the Minister outlined the work that has been undertaken to date on equality budgeting and reiterated the commitment of the Government to develop gender budgeting elements further and broaden the scope of equality budgeting to other dimensions of equality, including poverty, socio-economic inequality and disability. The social impact assessment framework developed by the Department of Public Expenditure to facilitate a more comprehensive assessment of budgetary policies and household living standards is described in the equality budgeting paper available on the budget 2019 website. The framework complements the established Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection social impact assessment which focuses on the effect of income tax and welfare measures using the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, SWITCH model. It focuses on policy areas that cannot easily be incorporated into the existing SWITCH model, specifically the impacts of public expenditure on recipient households. Strong stakeholder engagement also routinely assesses the impact of budgetary measures on equality. As part of this distributional analysis, the impact of tax and welfare changes by income band is examined. This, too, is undertaken using the ESRI SWITCH simulation model.

Strong stakeholder engagement remains central to the work regarding gender and equality budgeting. An expert advisory group chaired by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has been established and has a significant role. The Committee on Budgetary Oversight also works on this topic. The expert advisory group represents key stakeholders such as the National Women's Council, the ESRI, the National Economic and Social Council, NESC, the Central Statistics Office, CSO, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, IHREC, the Department of Justice and Equality, and the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection. The Department of Finance and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform are also represented on the implementation group for the National Strategy for Women and Girls 2017-2020 and contribute appropriately in that regard.