Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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323. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will update the document How to Conduct a Disability Impact Assessment Guidelines for Government Departments to reflect legislative and regulatory changes since its publication in 2012; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35705/21]

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 Equality Budgeting Expert Advisory Group (EBEAG). 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.