Vol. 459 No. 4
25 Ms Keogh asked the Minister for Equality and Law Reform the active role, if any, he had in the development of the Fourth Action Programme on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men in the EU; and the co-operation, if any, he foresees between the European Commission and his Department in implementing the programme. [18234/95]
The Fourth Medium-term Community Action Programme on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men 1996-2000 was considered for adoption by the Council of Social Affairs Ministers yesterday and will follow on directly from the third programme in the series, which ends on 31 December 1995. My Department has been fully supportive of the proposed programme in discussions at official level preparatory to the Social Affairs Council meeting.
The fourth programme is of course primarily a Commission initiative and has been drawn up following an extensive consultation process. This has included consultations with the Advisory Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men on which the Employment Equality Agency is represented. Furthermore, it has drawn on the submissions of member state Governments in the preparation of the recent EU Green Paper and White Paper on the Future of European Social Policy.
The objectives of the programme are: to promote the mainstreaming of equal opportunities, promote equality in the changing economy, reconcile family and working life, promote a gender balance in decision making, and make conditions conducive to exercising equality rights. As part of the consultative process in member states on the development of the fourth programme, the Employment Equality Agency last February hosted a workshop of equality experts in Dublin Castle, to consult on what national priorities should be included. The workshop assessed the experience of the implementation of the current Third Action Programme on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men by the Commission. The broad consensus was that the fourth programme should include a firm legal foundation: be a framework document which furthered equality under a partnership model within the individual member states; recognise the demands for dependant care and combat occupational segregation. All these factors have been incorporated into the programme now agreed.
