Austin Currie
Question:1 Mr. Currie asked the Minister for Equality and Law Reform the measures, if any, he intends to put in place to ensure gender equality in his own Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Gender Balance.
Máirín Quill
Question:28 Miss Quill asked the Minister for Equality and Law Reform the plans, if any, he has to redress the fact that none of the most senior positions within his Department are filled by women.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 and 28 together.
Since its establishment in 1993, my Department has acted in conformity with the Equal Opportunities Policy and Guidelines for the Civil Service.
As I intimated in reply to a similar Question on 23 March 1994, my Department was set up by the transfer to it of certain functions, together with the staff engaged on those functions, from other Departments. On that basis, all but one of the Department's staff at senior level were assigned from other Departments and I had no role or function in that arrangement. Only one senior civil servant, at Assistant Secretary level, was appointed since I took office and that appointment was made on the recommendation of the Top Level Appointments Committee.
In the case of promotions within my Department, I have to date promoted eight women and two men. Those selections for promotions were made on the basis of merit with due regard to seniority. Since assuming office as Minister for Equality and Law Reform, I have made six new appointments, two of whom are women and four are men.
I will continue to monitor the gender balance in my Department within the framework of the general policies relating to appointments and promotions.
Will the Minister agree he suffered some embarrassment at a recent committee meeting to discuss the Estimates for his Department when it was pointed out that the officials accompanying him were all male? Will he agree that is the wrong signal to send out when this is a matter of concern in relation to appointments in other Departments? How can he lecture or advise other Departments when his Department is so deficient in this respect? Will he agree that excuses can be found for almost everything and his job is not to find excuses for this but to find a remedy?
Regarding whether I was embarrassed on the occasion of the committee meeting, like the Deputy I am a politician of long standing and as a breed we are not easily embarrassed. My senior staff are provided by the Civil Service and that is a matter over which I do not have direct control. When I saw all the officials at that meeting were men, I was tempted to sack some of them and replace them with women, but I had to refrain from taking that step. In the Civil Service few women hold positions at top level and very few hold senior positions. That is regrettable. Steps are being taken to remedy that. I encourage the appointment of women at senior level and I look forward to improvements in this area throughout the public service.
I agree with the Minister that politicians have to have a thick neck and if he was not embarrassed on that occasion his neck is even thicker than mine. If the Minister was not embarrassed other people were embarrassed for him. Will he agree that he ought to make changes to bring about gender balance as quickly as possible? Any pressure he attempts to put on other Departments to bring this about will be looked upon as a cynical exercise because he has not sorted out the problem in his Department. That makes a nonsense of the word "equality" in the Department's title.
If I was embarrassed on that occasion my embarrassment was considerably reduced by the fact that the Fine Gael Front Bench Members present were also all male. Appointments to all levels of the service, excluding a small number of exceptional cases, are made through the procedures of the Local Appointments Commission, which was set up some decades ago. Various entrenched historical reasons account for the fact that very few women hold high level positions in the Civil Service. It is regrettable that that is the position. I assure the Deputy that I encourage the Local Appointments Commission — I have had meetings with members of it — to promote women of ability to senior ranking positions. In the Programme for Government the Government made clear its position on the advancement of women. At an early stage it adopted a quota provision for the appointment of women over a four year period to State boards and it set an objective of 40 per cent, as recommended in the report of the Second Commission on the Status of Women. The Government has signalled its position and I look forward to progress on this issue in the years ahead.