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Gender Equality

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 10 October 2024

Thursday, 10 October 2024

Questions (240)

Neasa Hourigan

Question:

240. Deputy Neasa Hourigan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to outline the initiatives to address gender inequalities in the agriculture and food industry and to promote female participation and leadership; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40714/24]

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Written answers

• An increased grant rate of 60% under the Women Farmer Capital Investment Scheme to fund on-farm investments by trained women farmers.

• The inclusion of an option to establish women-only groups in the current Knowledge Transfer Programme.

• Improved recording and reporting of gender data and the leveraging of the National CAP Network to increase the involvement of all women in the implementation of CAP.

A European Innovation Partnership open call in April 2024 for proposals on “innovative approaches to support greater gender balance in farming in Ireland”.

Additionally, I support rural female entrepreneurs by funding the ACORNS programme providing tailored support to early-stage female entrepreneurs living in rural Ireland. Up to 50 new female entrepreneurs can participate in ACORNS annually with the current ACORNS 10 programme due to conclude in April 2025.

I am a strong advocate of the need for greater female representation on the State Boards under my remit. During my tenure I have appointed and reappointed 49 women to these Boards. At the time of my appointment 2 boards out of 12 had reached the 40% gender target, whereas now 9 out of 13 have reached this target.

Ireland’s agri-food strategy, Food Vision 2030 also recognises the importance of gender balance to the long-term sustainable future for primary producers which includes actions to promote and improve gender balance at all levels within the sector.  One such commitment was to hold a National Dialogue on Women in Agriculture, which was held in February 2023.  This provided a platform to explore gender equality in farming and the agri-food sector generally. A report and action plan were published earlier this year.

A working group has been established to oversee implementation of the action plan, which is ongoing. In support of their work I wrote to the CEOs of state bodies under my remit encouraging them to consider how they might implement relevant actions within their organisations.

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