Cuardaigh ar fad gov.ie

Bailiúcháin

Equality Budgeting

Ireland’s approach to equality budgeting recognises that budgetary decisions (how resources are raised and spent) can impact on how people live their day-to-day lives and the opportunities that they and their families have to thrive. It also seeks to increase transparency and accountability by facilitating ongoing monitoring of the impact of government policy on tackling inequalities within society.

Within Ireland’s whole-of-year budgetary cycle, an equality perspective helps inform the development of budgetary measures (e.g., distributional impact assessments) and examine the impacts of public expenditure on the day-to-day lives of people living in Ireland (e.g., performance information).

Since 2018 and the initial introduction of equality indicators in the REV and PSPR, there has been a broadening of the range of indicators provided by Departments and Offices to describe both the provision and impacts of services to enhance equality or address inequalities. Equality budgeting includes all nine grounds of discrimination under Ireland’s Equality legislation, as well as socio-economic status.

Equality Budgeting Themes

The development of the performance information aspect of Ireland’s approach to equality budgeting has to date been informed by an OECD scan, Equality Budgeting in Ireland.

Furthermore, the development of this approach has been supported by an Expert Advisory Group and an Equality Budgeting Interdepartmental Group.

The Expert Advisory Group was established to assist in the further development and roll-out of Equality Budgeting in Ireland to:

  • Provide constructive, critical feedback on the Equality Budgeting initiative to date;
  • Provide expert guidance and informed insights on the future direction and areas of focus for Equality Budgeting, including in light of international experience, lessons from other policy areas and from academia;
  • Promote a coherent, cross-government approach to Equality Budgeting, to maximise equality impacts and avoid duplication of effort across various policy areas; and
  • Identify existing strengths of the Irish policy-making system which can be leveraged in support of Equality Budgeting, along with potential shortcomings that need to be addressed in this regard.

The Expert Advisory Group is chaired by the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation and its membership is constituted by:

  • Department of Children, Disability and Equality
  • Department of Social Protection
  • Department of Finance
  • Central Statistics Office
  • Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission
  • National Economic and Social Council
  • National Disability Authority
  • National Women’s Council of Ireland
  • Economic and Social Research Institute

In line with the principles of openness and transparency, the Equality Budgeting Expert Advisory Group operates under the guidelines set out in the Transparency Code. The group’s membership, Terms of Reference, work programme, and the minutes and agendas of all meetings are published here on this website.

An Equality Budgeting Interdepartmental Group was established in 2021 to support and inform the embedding of equality budgeting initiatives across all Government departments. This Interdepartmental Group is co-chaired by the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation and the Department of Children, Disability and Equality. The inter-departmental network includes officials from each Department with members having a broad knowledge of the policy work undertaken by that department and its relevance to advancing the goals of equality and inclusion.

The Equality Budgeting Interdepartmental Group operates under the guidelines set out in the Transparency Code. The network’s membership, Terms of Reference, work programme, and the minutes and agendas of meetings are published on this website.