Written answers

Thursday, 3 November 2016

Department of Finance

Equality Proofing of Budgets

Photo of Tommy BroughanTommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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53. To ask the Minister for Finance his plans to introduce a rigorous process of equality budgeting, whereby equality audits and assessments are carried out prior to a budget being decided upon and announced, in order that the potential impacts of any budget on certain groups, for example lone parents, can be assessed in advance and in order that there can be greater equality and transparency surrounding budget allocations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33117/16]

Photo of Michael NoonanMichael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The Programme for a Partnership Government contains a commitment to develop a process of budgetary and policy proofing as a means of advancing equality, reducing poverty and strengthening economic and social rights and, in this regard, my Department has already made process around the discussion on taxation policy.

For example, in 2016 as part of the reformed budgetary process, option papers were brought to the Tax Strategy Group (TSG) much earlier than was the case in previous years. Included in the 2016 TSG Income Tax & USC paper are details of the distributional burden of these tax proposals, an analysis of potential impacts upon different groups arising from a range of possible reform options and international comparisons.  The TSG papers were circulated to the Oireachtas Committees in July, well in advance of the Budget, facilitating the Committee's consideration of the distributional issues which arose. They were subsequently published on my Department's website.

A number of new innovations and improved features were included in this year's Budget documentation.  These included a description of the "Social Impact and Equality Analysis" in chapter five, of the Budget book, which sets out the stages in the budget process at which equality and distributional issues are explicitly addressed and outlines recent developments in these areas.

My Department, independently and in conjunction with other Departments also conducts a series of analyses to examine the distributional impact of possible Budget options and of the final Budget package.  These provide an evidence base on equality issues, which can be integrated alongside other budgetary considerations.

In addition, the Budget book contains a distributional analysis of budget measures on a variety of household types across a range of income levels.  Furthermore, the development of average effective tax rates and income tax progressivity issues are also considered in the accompanying material.

As the Deputy may be aware, the new Social Impact Assessment (SIA) framework, developed by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, in order to facilitate a more comprehensive assessment of budgetary policies on household living standards, is described in the 2017 Expenditure Report and accompanying papers. This new SIA framework will complement the existing Department of Social Protection SIA publication which focuses on the effect of income tax and welfare measures using the ESRI's SWITCH model. The new framework expands the assessment to consider the effects of expenditure on public services. The first of the new SIA papers, examining the General Medical Services Scheme and Targeted Childcare Scheme, also accompany the Expenditure Report.

Finally, I would like to reassure the Deputy that this Government takes consideration of equality issues very seriously. This starts with Cabinet procedures requiring a whole range of impacts to be covered in every decision proposed to Government. This ensures that the impact of policy proposals on gender equality, rural communities, North-South/East-West Relations, employment, persons experiencing or at risk of poverty or social exclusion, people with disabilities and industry costs are taken into account.

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