Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

125. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the way his Department is pursuing equality budgeting; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56422/22]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Integrated within the Performance Budgeting framework, Equality Budgeting adds an additional lens which focuses on how policy and expenditure decisions effect specific cohorts of our society.

Equality objectives and indicators are published every year in the Revised Estimates Volume and the Public Service Performance Report. Piloted in 2018, Equality Budgeting initially focused on gender and has been gradually extended to other equality dimensions including socio-economic inequality, disability and minority groups.

An Expert Advisory Group was established in 2018 to guide development of Equality Budgeting policy. The role and objectives of the Group are to provide constructive, critical feedback and provide expert guidance and informed insights on the future direction and areas of focus for Equality Budgeting.

To drive this important work forward in line with international best practice, in 2019 the OECD was requested by my Department, and the Department of Justice and Equality, to conduct a scan of Equality Budgeting in Ireland. The report, published on Budget day 2020, supported the approach taken, and also provided a roadmap to drive this initiative forward.

Implementation of the report's recommendations is well advanced. 

In cooperation with my Department, the CSO conducted a data audit in 2020 to ascertain the availability of public service data that is disaggregated by equality dimension. This work was guided by the Expert Group and the audit findings were published alongside Budget 2021. The information is published on the CSO website and will continue to be updated as new data is identified.  

Following the data audit, work is now underway to identify a data strategy that will identify what actions are needed to improve the disaggregation of data and identify actions needed to address data gaps.

A key recommendation was the establishment of an inter-departmental network of Equality Budgeting contact points.  In March 2021, Government agreed to establish an inter-departmental network on Equality Budgeting in order to facilitate full implementation across all departments. The network members are tasked with ensuring that policy makers in their departments are fully aware of, and implementing, Equality Budgeting policy where applicable.

All eighteen Government Departments are now participating in Equality Budgeting and further metrics are expected to be included in December's Revised Estimates Volume.