The Irish Hum an Rights and Equality Act 2014 places a positive duty on public sector bodies to have regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, promote equality and protect human rights, in their daily work. My Department has appointed an official at a senior level to liaise with the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission on the implementation of this Public Sector Duty.
The legislation requires public bodies, when preparing their Statements of Strategy, to conduct an assessment of the human rights and equality issues it believes to be relevant to the functions of the body and the policies in place or proposed to be put in place to address those issues. Initial engagement with the Commission has taken place in the context of the preparation of my Department’s next Statement of Strategy which is due to be published in November 2016.
My Department is committed to playing its part in working towards the commitment in the Programme for a Partnership Government to equality and gender proofing in the budgetary process and will work closely with the Oireachtas Committee on Budgetary Oversight in this regard.
