I am aware of FLAC's response to Budget 2017, and note that it welcomed the greater supports the Budget provides for older persons, carers and families with young children. I would not, however, share its assessment that there is a lack of transparency and accountability around how Budget decisions are made.
The Government is strongly committed to delivering greater openness and transparency in the budgetary process and to build upon the recent reforms of the budgetary architecture to facilitate a more open inclusive process with greater information sharing and Parliamentary engagement throughout the budgetary process.
As part of this process the National Economic Dialogue, held in June, facilitated an open and inclusive exchange in advance of Budget 2017 on the competing economic and social priorities facing the Government. It was informed by the macro-economic and fiscal parameters set out in the Summer Economic Statement.
My Department also published a Mid-Year Expenditure Report in July. This new Report set out the detailed expenditure context for Budget 2017, including baseline pre-Budget Ministerial Expenditure Ceilings for all Departments. This report provided the starting point for the examination by the Oireachtas of budgetary priorities for 2017.
The Minister for Finance and I met with the Committee on Budgetary Oversight in advance of the presentation of the Estimates to the House, to discuss budgetary priorities. The Committee published its report on Budget 2017 on 3 October which has been responded to, in respect of expenditure issues, in the Expenditure Report 2017 and in summary form on the Budget 2017 website.
The commitment in the Programme for Partnership Government to develop a process of budget and policy proofing as a means of advancing equality, reducing poverty and strengthening economic and social rights is key to the issue of equality-proofing expenditure decisions also discussed in FLAC's response.
In this regard, my Department has already developed a new Social Impact Assessment Framework designed to focus on the impacts of public expenditure on recipient households. In addition to publishing a detailed paper on the overall Framework on the Budget 2017 website www.budget.gov.ie, a social impact assessment of Targeted Childcare Schemes and the General Medical Services Scheme were also published. This work will compliment the existing ex-post impact assessment conducted by the Departments of Finance and Social Protection using the SWITCH model to assess the impact of the main tax and social welfare measures in the Budget. The most recent SWITCH model analysis, conducted by the ESRI and published in the Irish Times last week, found that the greatest gains in Budget 2017 are in the lowest income quintile, driven largely by the welfare rate increases in the Budget.
