The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission’s (‘IHREC’) policy statement sets out the case to the State for further integrating human rights and equality principles into the Irish budget process. We emphasise the importance of the obligations of the Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty in developing and expanding on existing State initiatives. We highlight the importance of public participation in the budgetary process. The policy statement sets out good practice on human rights and equality budgeting to be implemented in Ireland. We make several recommendations to the State on the legislative and policy measures need to strengthen the practice of human rights and equality budgeting in Ireland.
The policy statement is informed by inputs from speakers and participants at our workshop on ‘Investing in human rights and equality: human rights and equality budgeting’ held at IHREC’s annual conference in September 2025.