NWCI welcomes progress toward gender budgeting

Published: Friday, October 06, 2017

The National Women's Council of Ireland (NWCI) today welcomed the publication of the final report of the Budgetary Oversight Committee, which recommends assessing the gender impact of Budget 2018, as well as working with NWCI toward a gender budgeting statement in 2019. 

Orla O’Connor, Director of NWCI said,

"The recommendations of the Budget Oversight Committee are very welcome and another step towards Gender Budgeting in Ireland. The Budget is ultimately about making choices and Gender budgeting means thinking about how those choices will impact on women and advancing women's equality.  There are critical issues facing the Government in Budget 2019 in relation to taxation, social welfare and public expenditure and it's time we had a greater analysis as to how the decisions made in the Budget will impact on women."

Orla O’Connor concluded,

"The process of gender responsive Budgeting has the potential to improve accountability, efficiency and effectiveness and, it includes a requirement to focus on a continuous process of improvement. NWCI looks forward to working with Government and the Budget Oversight Committee to ensure better outcomes for the women, the economy and society through gender budgeting.”

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Notes to the Editor:

The full report is available here.

Gender budgeting
Recommendations 10:

The Committee heard from several witnesses in the lead up to its pre-budget hearings, including the National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI), of the importance of assessing and where possible alleviating the gender impact of budgetary measures.

• The Committee will engage with the NWCI during its post-budget review to assess the gender impact of budget 2018 with a view to ensuring the gender proofing of future budgets
• The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform should work with the NWCI towards including a gender budgeting statement in Budget 2019.