Ceisteanna — Questions. Written Answers. - Equality Proofing.
Frances Fitzgerald
Ceist:
1
Ms F. Fitzgerald
asked the
Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs
the decisions, if any, he has taken that have been equality proofed in 1993; and the criteria used to equality proof decisions taken within his Department.
All decisions made by my Department and the Office of the Tánaiste have appropriate regard to equality proofing.
The report of the Second Commission on the Status of Women contains two recommendations of relevance to my Department. These refer to the gender balance of nominations to State boards and the use of non-sexist application forms and correspondence.
In 1993, nominations were made to two State boards under the aegis of my Department: the Irish Aid Advisory Committee and the Refugee Agency. Nominations to these boards took into account the Commissions' recommendations and the relevant Government decisions on gender balance.
As regards the use of non-sexist forms, the various forms in use in the Department of Foreign Affairs were already in line with the commission's recommendation. It has been standard procedure in this Department to follow non-sexist practices in correspondence since the publication in 1985 of the Government's White Paper on the Public Service entitled "Serving the Country Better". This is in keeping with recent Government decisions on the use of gender neutral language in Bills and Statutory Instruments.
I established the National Economic and Social Forum last year. Nominations to the forum, which comes under the aegis of the Office of the Tánaiste, took into account Government decisions on gender balance. I might add that it has been given a wide brief under its terms of reference including having a specific focus on equality and social justice. The forum, which reports directly to the Government, provides an opportunity for all the interests represented to feed into the policy making process.
The membership includes representatives of the disadvantaged sectors and other groups who have been traditionally outside the consultative process including women, the unemployed, people with a disability, youth, the elderly and environmental groups as well as representatives of the Government, Oireachtas and the traditional social partners.
