Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 17 July 2014
449. Deputy Barry Cowen asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the gender quota targets for the boards of State bodies and agencies under his remit; the level reached to date; and his future plans to meet and maintain the targets. [32757/14]
View answerMy Department is committed to seeking to attain the 40% target for both genders on State Boards and it is a key concern of mine to ensure high quality representation on Boards irrespective of gender.
This Government adopted a significant innovation in 2011 to widen access by all persons to be considered for appointment to State Boards by providing that expressions of interest be sought publicly from all those that might be interested in serving on such Boards.
In accordance with the Government Decision of 12 April 2011, on my Department's website, Expressions of Interest have been invited from persons wishing to be considered for appointment to vacancies on State Boards under the aegis of my Department and this information has been used to inform decisions for such appointments. My Department first advertised for expressions of interest in such appointments in June 2011.
Notwithstanding this significant innovation, the level of expressions of interest from women has been less than half that of men. Of the 31 applications made in 2011 on foot of the invitation to submit expressions of interest, 10 were from women and 21 from men. In 2012 the total number of applicants was 37 of which 8 were from women and 29 from men. In the period since, the number of applicants is 110 of which 35 are from women and 75 from men.
There are currently a total of 152 Board Members serving on the Boards of Bodies under the aegis of my Department. Of these 110 (72%) are men and 42 (28%) are women. There have been 33 women appointed to State Boards under the aegis of my Department in the period March 2011 to date in 2014.
I will continue to work with my Government colleagues in pursuit of the target of having at least 40% of board membership from each gender.
