Debate contribution: Gender-responsive Budgeting

Debate contribution by Dr Caoimhe Archibald on 14 January 2025.

MLA

Dr Caoimhe Archibald

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

14 January 2025

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

Gender-responsive Budgeting

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4736820

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

I welcome the opportunity to speak about this important area. As others have said, there is significant merit to be gained from implementing a Budget through a specific gender lens. I, too, fully recognise the potential for gender-based budgeting. It is an area that I am keen to see further advanced. Gender budgeting has the potential to ensure equal access to public services, opportunities and resources. It can be a tool that enables us to analyse and address the impact of public spending and income-generation policies on genders, identifying gaps and disparities and making adjustments to address the issues. When women and marginalised groups have access to resources, the workforce becomes more inclusive and more productive. It leverages the untapped potential of women and ensures their active participation in the economy. It also improves policy effectiveness. By integrating a gender perspective into them, policies are better tailored to serve all segments of the population. That ensures targeted interventions in critical sectors such as maternal health, childcare and gender-based violence prevention. Gender-sensitive policies lead to more inclusive and sustainable outcomes. Gender budgeting also creates a more equitable society by enabling public services such as education and healthcare to become more accessible and inclusive. Gender-responsive programmes target issues such as income inequality and lack of access to opportunities for women and disadvantaged groups. Empowering women economically helps lift families and communities out of poverty, contributing to reducing the overall gender pay gap and employment disparities. We currently implement Budget policy through the lens of equality by looking at impacts on all section 75 categories. The gender impacts of Budget proposals are therefore captured as part of the equality impact screening and assessments that Departments complete as part of the Budget process.

Yes. Go ahead.

I thank the Member for her point. I do not disagree with her. There is the potential for us to build on section 75 as it exists. As I will outline later, that is particularly the case for gender-based budgeting, which I have focused on since I came into office. I fully recognise the potential for gender-based budgeting, and I am keen to see more done in that area, given that it can contribute to better Budget outcomes for everyone, not just women. That is part of my aim for an improved Budget process in the future and will be part of the ongoing work on the Executive's Budget sustainability plan. I met the NI Women's Budget Group and experts from Ulster University in May 2024 to discuss gender budgeting. My officials have continued to engage with Ulster University, most recently attending a training event for all public spending group staff in my Department. I recently agreed and published a Budget improvement plan road map. That road map includes gender budgeting as a key action, confirming my commitment to consideration of the matter for future Budget processes. I remain committed to advancing financial sustainability and, as I have just indicated, exploring gender budgeting. Those initiatives are not just about managing our finances better; they are about building a more just and equitable society. The work that my officials are doing is crucial to the well-being and prosperity of our citizens. Equality, gender budgeting and financial sustainability are not just technical processes; they are about shaping the kind of society that we want to live in and ensuring that our financial policies reflect our values of fairness, equality and responsibility. That cannot be done quickly if we want to do it correctly. There are barriers that we face, some of which have been referred to. They include systems, metrics and practical and cultural barriers. Our current budgeting system is not set up to record budgetary data in a way that identifies gender outcomes or costs. I am hopeful that, through engagement with experts in the area, we will be able to put in place the necessary systems and processes. There is also the matter of data collection. One of the key issues identified by the team from Ulster University is the lack of available metrics to appropriately assess the impact of policies on gender. It is imperative that we consider how best to collect the relevant data. We also need to understand how gender budgeting operates in practice by seeking pilot programmes that will help to identify the issues and benefits related to gender budgeting, and, perhaps most crucially, we need to grasp the nettle and address any scepticism about gender budgeting, fostering a gender-budgeting culture within and outside government that is driven by Ministers right through organisations. It is my ambition that we will address those issues and, along with my Executive colleagues, consider how to put in place the building blocks for gender-based budgeting in future Budget processes. However, it is my view that we do not have to wait for that. There may be specific areas in which individual Ministers may wish to implement gender-based budgeting sooner — potentially even in 2025-26. The development of the Executive's social inclusion strategies, including the gender equality strategy, will be crucial in enhancing our gender considerations in Budgets and will help drive the long-term benefits of equal participation of women in all aspects of society. Gender budgeting is not merely a financial exercise but can be a powerful tool for social transformation. By prioritising equality in the allocation of resources, it has the potential to strengthen economies, enhance policy impact and promote social justice. That is why I am committed to exploring gender budgeting as part of future Budget processes and bringing the matter to the Executive for consideration.

937 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:50 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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