Senator Higgins welcomes the launch of the Report on Gender Budgeting from the Committee on Budgetary Oversight. The report contains several important recommendations including that the annual budget statement should be accompanied by an equality budget statement - something which Senator Higgins has long called for.
The report also stressed the importance of collecting gender disaggregated data. There is currently a significant lack of usable data which is impeding the implementation of the gender budgeting processes.
Gender budgeting is not a new concept. Many countries, including Austria and Scotland, have successfully implemented strong gender budgeting mechanisms which have yielded positive results for gender equality.
Last year, Senator Higgins hosted Christina McKelvie, a member of the Scottish Parliament and Convenor of its Equalities and Human Rights Committee and Emma Ritch from Engender Scotland in Leinster House to meet with members of the women's caucus and members of the Budgetary Oversight Committee to discuss the programmes which they had implemented in Scotland.
Senator Higgins will continue to push for further progress in the implementation of gender and equality budgeting and, in particular, will be calling, once again, for a gender and equality statement to accompany Budget 2019.
In response to President Trump’s executive order banning travel to the U.S.A. from seven Muslim-majority countries, Senator Higgins joined others in the Seanad in raising grave concerns about its legal and moral implications. She highlighted the need for urgent review of the preclearance agreement in effect at Irish airports to ensure Irish and international laws are upheld under the ban.
In her address to Mr. Junker, Senator Higgins spoke passionately about the future of Europe, the realisation of the European pillar of social rights, the important work to be done on inclusion and peace-building and a true version of multilateralism. She also voiced the concerns of many across Europe about the increasing militarisation of the EU and its borders and the inclusion of investor state courts in EU trade agreements.