How policy and budget proofing can advance human rights and equality in Ireland

This special issue on policy and budget proofing comes in the context of renewed national and international focus on policy and budget proofing as mechanisms to advance equality and human rights. Focused on policy learning, this special issue aims to provide an overview of recent domestic and international developments to both inform and encourage Irish politicians, civil servants and civil society, equality and human rights advocates, as well as academics, to pro - actively engage with how policy and budget proofing can be advanced in an Irish context. Recognising the difficulties associated with policy transfer and the need for institutional fit with Irish budgetary and policy processes, the focus of the articles is relatively close to home, with lessons drawn from European, Scottish and Northern Irish case studies, and from Ireland, national and local. The papers include lessons from three different proofing families: human rights; gender and equality; poverty proofing or policy impact assessment. These three traditions reflect different foci and proofing approaches: some human rights processes focus on principles, mainstreaming approaches focus on the process of implementing budgets, while poverty proofing and impact assessment often focus on assessing distributional outcomes across a number of grounds..