Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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388. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the way his Department and public bodies and agencies under his remit undertake disability impact assessments; the process by which these assessments are monitored; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34866/21]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The focus of my Department is on the development of an integrated equality proofing process that covers all nine equality grounds plus poverty rather than on separate impact assessments.

My Department is co-lead, with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, on the EqualityBudgeting Expert Advisory Group (EBEAG) and has funded a policy scan undertaken by the OECD to support this process. In March 2021, the Government agreed to establish an inter-departmental group for Equality Budgeting, to facilitate the embedding of the initiative across all Government departments.

Equality Budgeting aims to provide greater information on how proposed or ongoing budgetary decisions impact on particular groups in society, thereby integrating equality concerns into the budgetary process. Providing greater information on the likely impacts of budgetary measures facilitates the integration of equality concerns into the budgetary process, helping to avoid unintended adverse outcomes and enhancing the Government’s decision making framework. Disability is a specific strand in this process.