Emmet Stagg
Question:186 Mr. Stagg asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform when it is intended to establish the home to business register for women in the home; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15411/01]
Written Answers. - Home to Business Register.
The Second Commission on the Status of Women report to Government, 1993, stated that:
Women in the home are not a uniform group but include traditional homemakers, with the woman taking responsibility for childcare and domestic management while the man is full-time breadwinner; women who combine work outside the home with family responsibilities; women whose primary role is homemaker but who also make a contribution to the family farm or business; women running small businesses from their home; lone mothers; older women who have reared their children; women in households on social welfare benefit or assistance payments; unemployed women.
My Department has introduced certain measures to make entry and re-entry into the workplace more flexible for women. These include the Employment Equality Act, 1998 which prohibits discrimination in relation to employment, including access to employment, on nine grounds, namely, gender, marital status, family status, sexual orientation, religious belief, age, disability, race and membership of the Traveller community. The Act should facilitate women who give up their employment to care for their children full time in the home and who wish at a later stage to return to paid employment. In particular, the prohibition of discrimination on grounds of age will ensure that such women will have the option of re-entering the labour force once they have reared their children. Funding is provided in the regional operational programmes of the national development plan for my Department for an equality for women measure.
One strand of this measure is devoted to encouraging entrepreneurship among women. The intention is to fund a small number of projects focused on supporting women in business. I expect shortly to announce my decision on projects which qualify for funding under this measure for the period up to end 2003. In addition to active projects, the measure is also funding research on innovative approaches and best practice in supporting women in enterprise. This research has been commissioned by Enterprise Ireland and will be published later this year.
The measure is also funding research on the information, guidance and supports needs of women who are interested in returning to the workforce after a long period in the home. This research is being managed by the National Women's Council of Ireland and it will also be finalised this year. The tender for the research was awarded to the ESRI. In accordance with Government commitments, the gender dimension of spending under the productive sector operational programme, which includes EU and national funding for business, will be monitored over the life of the national development plan. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and relevant state agencies have committed to collecting gender disaggregated statistics to measure the impact of the operational programme on women and men.
My Department allocated a grant of £5,000 last year to Women in the Home for development activities and this grant is being increased to £6,000 this year. My Department is working on the development of a national plan for women for the period 2001 to 2005 to be drawn up under the same priority actions or critical areas of concern as defined in the UN Beijing platform for action. A draft plan will include contributions from all relevant Departments under the relevant areas of concern. One of these areas relates to women in the economy and the establishment of a home to business register for women in the home would be appropriate to this area. My Department will enter into a consultation process with women and their representative groups when the draft plan is approved by Government.