Appointments to State Boards

Wednesday, 27 February 2013

Questions (53)

Gerry Adams

Question:

53. Deputy Gerry Adams asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he has included gender parity for the board membership as part of his reforming agenda of the State agency sector. [10442/13]

View answer

Written answers

Minister of State at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform

As the Deputy is aware in 2011 the Government introduced new arrangements for the appointment of State board members. Under the new arrangements Departments now invite expressions of interest from the public in vacancies on the boards of bodies under their aegis on their websites. It is open to all members of the public regardless of gender, political affiliations or geographical location to apply for appointment to these vacancies.

I am satisfied that the new arrangements introduced by the Government in 2011 have significantly improved transparency in the making of appointments to State Boards compared with the making of appointments in previous years.

The following table outlines the breakdown by gender of the State Boards under the remit of my Department:

	Current Members nominated by Ministers/Government					Current Members nominated by other Bodies			Chairpersons
Name of Board	Total No. of Places on Board	Board positions currently vacant	Men	Women	Current Total	Men	Women	Current Total	Male	Women
An Post National Lottery	7	1	2	-	2	3	1	4	1	-
Outside Appointments Board	5	1	3	1	4	-	-	-	Vacant	-
Public Appointments Service Board	9	-	3	3	6	1	-	1	1	-
Civil Service Arbitration Board	4	-	4	-	4	-	-	-	1	-
Totals	25	2	12	4	16	4	1	5	3	-

As the table shows of the 16 members nominated by myself or the Government 25% of the appointments were female. In view of the statutory procedures for the appointment of members of the Civil Service Arbitration Board and the Public Appointments Service, there is limited scope for me to take a factor such as gender into account when I make such appointments.

I would like to make it clear that it is my intention in the limited number of appointments I have to make to increase the number of women appointees over the lifetime of the Government.