Departmental Policies
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-17
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Norma Foley (FF), Kerry

To reiterate, in terms of the book the Deputy referenced, the Department has no role in the oversight or recommendation of any of the books referenced. There is no role for the Department to do that.
On the Deputy's specific question on what exactly happens regarding assessments that are made of impacts on children, women and girls from an equality point of view, I have made very clear to him that when any Department is bringing forward any kind of policy or strategy, there must be a robust interrogation of it. If anything new is being introduced, it goes before a committee. There is an interrogation at committee level. As I referenced, any policy introduced is also analysed by EIGE, which placed Ireland sixth in terms of equality for women and girls in 2025, up from ninth. I also told the Deputy that the Department of public expenditure leads an equality rights budgeting programme. That also seeks to analyse the impacts of policies and expenditure across a broad range of equality grounds. I have been very clear on the mechanisms that are in place.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-17/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-17