Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Beginning with a pilot programme introduced for the 2018 budgetary cycle, Equality Budgeting is a way of approaching and understanding the budget as a process that embodies long-standing societal choices about how resources are used, rather than simply a neutral process of resource allocation. In practice, this means that Equality Budgeting attempts 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.

Equality objectives and indicators are published every year in the Revised Estimates Volume and the Public Service Performance Report. The initial focus of Equality Budgeting was on gender, following which the initiative was extended to other dimensions of equality including socio-economic inequality, disability and minority groups.

An Expert Advisory Group was established to guide development of Equality Budgeting policy, and has met regularly since September 2018. The role and objectives of the Group are to provide constructive, critical feedback on the Equality Budgeting initiative and provide expert guidance and informed insights on the future direction and areas of focus for Equality Budgeting, including in light of international experience, lessons from other policy areas and from academia.

In 2019, the OECD published a report on Equality Budgeting in Ireland, providing 12 recommendations on how to drive this initiative forward. Implementation of the report's recommendations is now at an advanced stage. A key recommendation was to develop an equality data strategy, which was completed by the CSO in October 2020. To build on this, work is now underway to draft an equality data strategy. In March 2021, an inter-departmental group was established to facilitate implementation of Equality Budgeting across all Government departments. This group meets regularly and plays a key role in guiding the continued progress of Equality Budgeting. Members are accountable for ensuring that policy makers in their departments are fully aware of, and implementing, Equality Budgeting policy where applicable and bringing all relevant work within their department to the attention of the Equality Budgeting unit.

All Government Departments are now participating in Equality Budgeting. The latest Public Service Performance Report, published on 19th May this year, includes an update on this work.