Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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34. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if he has consulted wit the Department of Finance on the issue of equality budgeting. [39754/13]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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I refer the Deputy to the Government's position on this matter, as set out in Minister of State's Kathleen Lynch's statement to the Dáil on 2 July 2013 in the context of the debate on her party's Private Members Bill, the Equal Status (Amendment) Bill 2013, on this topic. Ministers were formally consulted on and involved in agreeing the Government's position on this issue.

In our democratic State, budgetary decisions are for the democratically-elected Government of the day to make and for the Dáil Éireann to approve. The reality is that resources are limited and additional expenditure demands or costs arising - for whatever reason - will have to be paid for through expenditure reductions elsewhere or through the raising of additional revenue. Nothing in the equality budgeting approach canvassed by the Deputy's party can change that reality or be of any help to the Government in making the difficult decisions its members have been elected to make on behalf of the people as we work to restore the country’s economic sovereignty.