Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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465. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if an equality budgeting statement will be forthcoming in budget 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39870/21]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Built on the performance budgeting framework that has been progressively embedded into the budget cycle, Equality Budgeting in Ireland has been developed over recent years with a view to enhancing the role of resource allocation policies in advancing equality, reducing poverty and strengthening economic and social rights.

Equality objectives and indicators are published every year in the Revised Estimates Volume (REV) and the Public Service Performance Report. Twelve departments are now reporting Equality Budgeting metrics. An Expert Advisory Group was established to guide development of Equality Budgeting policy, and has met regularly since September 2018. To further support the implementation of Equality Budgeting across all Departments, in March of this year, Government agreed to the establishment of an Inter-departmental Group on Equality Budgeting.

In 2019, my Department, in liaison with the then Department of Justice and Equality, commissioned the OECD to undertake a Policy Scan of Equality Budgeting in Ireland. This was published in tandem with Budget 2020. The report reviews Ireland’s equality budgeting programme and provides recommendations on its further development, in light of international experience.

In line with the OECD recommendation to develop an equalities data strategy, the CSO completed a data audit in cooperation with my Department, to ascertain the availability of public service data that is disaggregated by equality dimension. A report on this audit was published in October 2020.

Another OECD recommendation was the development of tagging and tracking functionality for departmental expenditure. My Department is working on this recommendation as part of an overall project to create a new architecture for Performance Budgeting. This project is funded under the EU Structural Reform Support Programme.

The OECD Policy Scan also raised the issue of an Equality Budgeting Statement. My Department is reviewing the different approaches to Gender Budgeting statements published by other OECD countries. The timing of publication, and the level of detail, vary greatly across OECD countries. This work will be used to inform future developments in this area taking into account: the level of detail in relation to Equality Budgeting currently published including in the REV and Public Service Performance Report; analysis published as part of the Spending Review process; existing tools such as the ESRI’s SWITCH Model; and linkages with the development of the Well-being Framework. In particular, this work will need to reflect that the approach to date with Equality Budgeting has been to embed equality perspectives across the whole-of-year budgetary process by setting out targets in the REV and reporting on performance versus targets in the Public Service Performance Report, with analyses such as Social Impact Assessments also supporting this whole-of-year approach.

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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466. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the status of progress of a well-being budgeting framework; if the framework is set to be included in budget 2022; if not, the expected timeline for completion and operationalisation of this well-being budget framework; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39871/21]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Following the Government's decision in February 2021 to commence work on developing a well-being framework for Ireland, the Department of the Taoiseach, co-sponsored by the Department of Finance as well as my Department, established an Interdepartmental Working Group on the Development of a Well-being Framework for Ireland.

This Working Group provided a forum for representatives from across the policy system to have an input into the design of the Framework. The design of the Framework was also informed by a sub-group of stakeholders and experts that was established by the National Economic & Social Council and a consultation process that it facilitated with stakeholders, external experts and interested parties.

In July 2021, the first report of the Interdepartmental Working Group (IDWG) was published setting out an initial Well-being Framework for Ireland. This initial Framework has an outcomes-based approach that is focused on understanding people’s lived experiences across person, place and society, and builds on existing work in this area, in particular the work of the OECD. That said, it has also sought to integrate an Irish context into the aspects of well-being that are set out in this initial Framework; reflecting internal and external consultation.

The initial Framework sets out 11 dimensions of well-being:

- Subjective Well-being,

- Mental and Physical Health,

- Income and Wealth,

- Knowledge and Skills,

- Housing and Local Area,

- Environment, Climate and Biodiversity,

- Safety and Security,

- Work and Job Quality,

- Time Use,

- Community, Social Connections and Cultural Participation, and

- Civic Engagement and Cultural Expression.

In Autumn 2021, it is intended that an interactive dashboard of indicators associated with each of these dimensions will be made available by the Central Statistics Office.

This initial Framework will be developed further through consultation and engagement with policy makers, stakeholders, regional communities and citizens. Its development will also be supported by the use of the Framework in informing and shaping the direction of public policy.

The Mid-Year Expenditure Report has set out my Department's perspective on how the Well-being Framework can be utilised to locate well-being within existing expenditure policy in order to inform efforts to improve the impact of public policy on people's lives and to build knowledge of well-being as a policy objective, in order to better understand policy challenges and inform the design and implementation of more effective public policies.

An updated report will be submitted to Government in early 2022 and will include an updated vision and framework, progress on addressing data gaps, and set out recommendations for longer-term structures for developing and embedding the Framework.