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Equality Proofing

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 30 November 2021

Tuesday, 30 November 2021

Questions (212)

Mary Lou McDonald

Question:

212. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will report on the work of the Inter-Departmental group for Equality Budgeting. [58403/21]

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Written answers

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.

Since 2018, significant work has been undertaken to develop the initiative and Equality Budgeting has been expanded across multiple dimensions of equality including gender, socio-economic, disability and minority groups.

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 published report supported the approach taken, and also provided twelve recommendations on how to drive this initiative forward. Implementation of the report's recommendations is well advanced.

A key OECD recommendation, that will underpin overall implementation, was the establishment of an inter-departmental network of Equality Budgeting contact points.

In March of this year, Government agreed to establish an inter-departmental network on Equality Budgeting in order to facilitate the full implementation of Equality Budgeting across all departments, in line with this OECD recommendation.

Following a request for nominees, the network first meet in June, and has since met on two further dates in July and November.

The inter-departmental network includes a senior member of staff from each department with a broad knowledge of the policy work undertaken by that department and its relevance to advancing the goals of equality and inclusion.

Members are accountable for:

1. ensuring that policy makers in their departments are fully aware of, and implementing, Equality Budgeting policy where applicable;

2. bringing all relevant work within their department to the attention of the Equality Budgeting unit, to ensure that strategic direction of Equality Budgeting is fully informed, and;

3. attending all scheduled meetings, or where this is not possible, nominate a suitably informed deputy to attend, to represent their department

This group is playing a key role in guiding the continued progress of Equality Budgeting.

By improving knowledge sharing across departments, this network will help to resolve several challenges highlighted by the OECD. The network will also facilitate cross-government training on the purpose and application of equality budgeting.

In conjunction with the Equality Budgeting Expert Advisory group, this network will also help inform the future direction of Equality Budgeting policy, in line with broader cross-governmental developments, including the Wellbeing framework.

The Network is chaired jointly by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and meetings will continue to be held on approximately a bi-monthly basis. Secretariat is provided by the Performance Budgeting unit of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

Meeting agendas and minutes are published on the Equality Budgeting page of Gov.ie.

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