Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 30 November 2021
215. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will provide an update on his Department's implementation of each of the 12 recommendations contained within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development report on Equality Budgeting in Ireland 2019. [58668/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraSince 2018, when it was first piloted, significant work has been undertaken to develop the Equality Budgeting initiative. With an initial focus on gender, due to the availability of data, Equality Budgeting has since been expanded across multiple dimensions of equality including gender, socio-economic, disability and minority groups.
An Equality Budgeting Expert Advisory Group (EBEAG) has been established to guide the development of Equality Budgeting policy. Representing key stakeholders such as the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, the National Women’s Council and the National Disability Authority, this group is chaired by my Department and has met regularly since 2018.
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 twelve recommendations on how to drive this initiative forward.
Implementation of the report's recommendations is well advanced, is a continued focus of work, and includes the workstreams below.
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 EBEAG 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. This work is led by the CSO and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (D/CEDIY).
A key OECD recommendation, that has underpinned 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. The network first met in June, and have since met on two further dates in July and November. The inter-departmental network includes a senior member of staff from each department and 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, to ensure that strategic direction of Equality Budgeting is fully informed.
An initial multi-dimensional Well-being Framework for Ireland was published in July 2021. Since then the CSO has launched an interactive dashboard to complement the Framework and a wide-ranging public consultation led by the Department of the Taoiseach is ongoing. My Department is in the process of piloting an approach of locating well-being within existing public policy. The approach builds on the performance budgeting initiative by placing an explicit focus on stated policy goals and evidence of progress. With regard to well-being, my Department intends to:
(1) Put in place supports for other Departments to support them in using the Well-being Framework as part of the Spending Review process; and
(2) Develop an approach to linking budget decisions with the various dimensions of the Well-being Framework.
The Structural Reform Support Programme (SRSP) is an EU programme that provides tailor-made support to all EU countries for their institutional, administrative and growth-enhancing reforms. In Oct 2019, my Department applied for funding to develop our Performance Budgeting framework and systems, and in early 2020, it was confirmed that our application had been successful. This project aims to create a new architecture for Performance Budgeting that brings together the various streams including Green Budgeting, Equality Budgeting, and Well-being Budgeting. A key element of this project is the development of tagging and tracking functions.
We continue to work closely with the Department of Finance, who are also members of the EBEAG, to ensure synergy with their remit. On Budget day this year, the Department of Finance published a paper (as part of the Report on Tax Expenditures 2021), which examined how to analyse and develop a process for Equality Budgeting in Ireland from a tax perspective.
We continue to work very closely with our colleagues in D/CEDIY to ensure that Equality Budgeting and gender mainstreaming work together to achieve common goals and on mutually beneficial policies. The Inter-departmental network outlined above is jointly chaired by D/CEDIY which ensures collaboration is maximised.
Communication with stakeholders continues to be a priority. Through both the EBEAG and the Inter-departmental network, very strong communication channels now exist. These channels provide the scope to enhance knowledge sharing on Equality Budgeting across Government.
Work is underway to identify the most suitable approach to track the actions and impact of equality budgeting to inform both the Oireachtas and civil society stakeholders that builds on the existing structures in place in the Revised Estimates for Public Services and the Public Service Performance Report.
The actions outlined above, and the work plan in place for 2022, will continue to support the further development of Equality Budgeting, ensuring that the momentum achieved to date will be maintained.
