In October 2013 FLAC, PILA and the Equality Budgeting Campaign facilitated a civil society response to Budget 2014. Over fifty organisations participated in the event and completed the post budget survey which sought to introduce the concept of human rights budgeting and to measure the Government’s adherence to international human rights standards when making budgetary decisions.
FLAC wanted to build on the growing interest in the area of human rights and equality budgeting by organising a similar post-budget seminar for Irish civil society in the advent of Budget 2015 being announced. Surveys were again sent to civil society organisations aiming to gauge the extent to which the government relied on human right law in its proposals for Budget 2015. A panel of speakers laid the foundation for the human rights analysis of Budget 2015 which was presented in the second part of the seminar, finishing in comments and observations from the floor, including both civil society representatives and also elected officials.
The panel discussion was opened by Dr John Reynolds of the Department of Law in Maynooth. Dr Reynolds spoke on the topic of “Maximising Available Resources: Widening the Budgetary Space for Socio Economic Rights”. Dr Reynolds also elaborated on the concepts of progressive realisation and states’ minimum core obligations to protect socio economic rights.
June Tinsley, Acting Head of Advocacy and Support Engagement at Barnardos outlined her “Initial thoughts on children and the human rights context”. Ms. Tinsley’s speech at the post-budget seminar concentrated on child poverty and access to public services for vulnerable families and children. She gave an insight into Barnardos pre budget work including the development of a Children’s budget relying on international human rights law such as the International Covenant on the Rights of the Child. The children’s budget aimed to highlight the State’s obligations whilst raising the policy shortcomings that the organisation has seen emerge from their clients.
Roisin Hennessey, Research and Policy Officer at the Human Rights and Equality Commission spoke on the topic of “Towards Indivisibility – The role of national human rights and equality institutions in protecting economic and social rights”. Ms Hennessy explained the legal provisions set out in the UN Paris Principles for the establishment of national human rights institutions (NHRIs) and that the remit of such bodies covers not only civil and political rights but also economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) has a notable role to play in examining the budget decisions through a human rights lens, and specifically an ESC rights lens, if the resource capacity is there.
The Panel discussion was brought to a close by Michael Taft of UNITE – the Trade Union. Mr Taft delivered a presentation entitled “The Story behind Budget 2015 (and a better story)”. Michael Taft introduced his presentation by stating “That social equity and economic efficiency are inextricably intertwined. It is not a matter of obtaining one to achieve the other, never mind sacrificing one in pursuit of the other”. He also noted the interconnectedness between economic and social rights and how the relationship between these two has a measured impact on every person that might not be instantly evident. In the context of budgeting and ensuring fairness and equality in the budget decisions it is worth keeping in mind the need to protect social and economic rights, not neglecting one for the other. This point came across very strongly through Mr. Taft’s presentation.
Following the panel discussion Yvonne O’Sullivan of FLAC presented the findings from the post budget survey completed by a broad range of civil society organisations representing and working with some of the most vulnerable and marginalised people in Irish society. Some of the key findings are as follows:
The event was brought to a close with an open forum discussion lead by representatives of civil society organisations and elected officials. A report detailing the open forum discussions, commentary, survey findings and analysis, and speaker presentations will be circulated to participants and the wider community in the coming weeks through the FLAC website – www.flac.ie.
Click here to view the survey findings and analysis presented by Yvonne O’Sullivan at the post budget seminar.
Click here for the full report, Fairer Budget, Fairer Society: A Human Rights Analysis of Budget 2015 from Irish Civil Society.