Gender budgeting: NWCI appeared before the Budgetary Oversight Committee

Published: Friday, April 13, 2018

NWCI appeared before the Budgetary Oversight Committee, to provide an assessment on the Equality Budgeting piloting initiative led by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DEPR).

Eilís Ní Chaithnía, Policy Coordinator with NWCI said,

“The budget is the principal expression of a Government’s priorities and is a critical opportunity to advance women’s equality. NWCI has campaigned for many years for the introduction of gender budgeting and we welcome the opportunity to provide an assessment of the Equality Budgeting piloting Initiative, led by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DEPR) and undertaken by six other government departments. Gender budgeting should be a cornerstone of the budgetary process as it is in several countries across Europe and beyond. NWCI commended the progress made so far in rolling our equality budgeting and departments’ commitment to begin analysing how budgetary measures can result in greater equality between women and men.”

Eilís Ní Chaithnía continued,

“The pilot initative put in place by DEPR involves six departments setting high level equality goals in the Revised Estimates Volume. While some of the equality goals set by departments are ambitious, others are much narrower. It is important to ensure departments participating in the pilot initiative have the opportunity to scope out how best to utilise the new tools made available to them and how to concretely apply them."

Read our full press release here.