Emma McCarron is an intern at PILA and is an active member of the Equality Budgeting Campaign. The Equality Budgeting Campaign is a broad-based coalition of trade unions, NGOs and concerned individuals that are seeking the introduction of Equality Budgeting in Ireland.
Equality Budgeting is an approach to economic policy-making and planning that places equality at the centre of decisions concerning public expenditure and income. Through equality audits and impact assessments, Equality Budgeting provides information on how different sections of society are impacted by specific economic policy measures.
Equality Budgeting was first introduced in the form of gender budgeting in the 1980s. This then evolved, over the decades, to include other equality categories, such as disability, age, or race. Australia pioneered the adoption of Equality Budgeting by publishing a “women’s budget” in 1984. There are now over 60 countries that have implemented or worked toward Equality Budgeting, including Canada, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Tanzania and Uganda. An associated process is Human Rights Budgeting, which refers to the human rights law obligations applicable to budgetary decisions - even in a recession.
The Equality Budgeting Campaign is calling for the adoption in Ireland of a model similar to that in place in Scotland. In Scotland a draft budget is published alongside an equality impact statement. The impact statement is produced by the Equality and Budget Advisory Group (EBAG). The advisory group is made up of members of government, civil servants and civil society representatives. The Scottish model involves public discussion and debate of the draft budget before the details are finalised. The equality impact statement helps the public to clearly understand the budget's impact, as well as providing an overview of the “equality characteristics” of the budget. This overview is broken down according to age, gender, race and other factors.
At present, Ireland’s budgetary decision making process is extremely opaque with no meaningful legislative oversight. According to a World Bank study Ireland was ranked 35th out of 43 countries it assessed for financial scrutiny of legislation, with Greece being the only developed country to get a worse rating. Ireland scored only 20 out of a possible 100 points on an index measuring the extent to which the legislature has formal budgetary decision making authority. There are no publicly available impact assessments of budgetary decisions in advance of the vote on the budget. While the Department of Social Protection did conduct an impact assessment of tax increases and welfare cuts in the 2013 budget, this was carried out several months after the budget had been voted in.
Conducting equality impact assessments could have played an important role in highlighting and correcting the unequal impact of austerity in Ireland. Inequality has worsened in Ireland since the economic crisis. The impact of austerity has been most severe on some of the most vulnerable groups in society. According to a March 2013 social impact assessment carried out by the Department of Social Protection of the 2013 Budget, the households worst affected by the budget were those with children, particularly lone parent families. In addition, a report published by Pavee Point revealed dramatic disinvestment in the Traveller community by the state since the economic crash in 2008. According to the report, while there has been an overall reduction in government spending of about 4.3%, education initiatives for Travellers have been reduced by 86.6% and spending on Traveller accommodation has been reduced by 85%.
The Equality Budgeting Campaign is calling on the Irish government to emulate best practice from Scotland and other international approaches to Equality Budgeting, including the publication of an equality impact statement alongside a draft budget, meaningful legislative oversight of the budget and the establishment of an independent body with powers to research the impact of economic decisions on various sectors of society.
There have been a number of proposals to improve Ireland’s budgetary process in recent years. For example, the 2011 Programme for Government states the government’s intention to “open up the Budget process to the full glare of public scrutiny...”. In addition, by signing up to the European Fiscal Compact, Ireland has already committed itself to budgetary reform and significant new budgetary oversight at European level. This year, for the first time, Ireland will be submitting a draft budget on 15 October in advance of a final vote in December. This revised timeframe provides an opportunity to increase transparency in the budgetary process and to facilitate real public engagement.
As part of the campaign PILA and the Equality Budgeting Campaign are facilitating a joint civil society response to the budget. We are calling for reforms including equality impact assessments and the use of minimum standards of living based on Ireland’s international human rights obligations. We are encouraging as many civil society organizations as possible to come together and speak with one voice in calling for a fairer budget for the most vulnerable people in society.
Click here to read more about the joint civil society response.
Click here to read a booklet on Equality Budgeting prepared by the Irish Feminist Network and the Equality Budgeting Campaign.
Click here to read more about the Equality Budgeting Campaign.