In accordance with the Government's programme, set out in A Government of Renewal, the first priority in labour market policy is given to the long-term unemployed. To facilitate women in benefiting fully from these programmes I have ensured that the main labour market programmes, community employment and the jobs initiative, can also be accessed by adult dependents of the long-term unemployed and that persons in receipt of one parent allowance may also qualify for assistance through Job-Start and Work-Place.
In general the enterprise strategy of my Department and its agencies is focused on companies rather than individuals. However, in the normal course of their business the industrial development agencies seek to ensure that any individual programmes are equally accessible to male and female applicants. For instance within Forbairt initiatives have recently been taken to ensure that the Techstart-Techman and Applied Research Grant scheme are made more accessible to women.
Since 1990 FÁS has had in place an annual Action Programme for Women — Woman in Focus. This programme has the following objectives: to promote actively the breaking down of traditional patterns of occupational segregation by encouraging increased female participation in sectors of the labour market traditionally dominated by men; to promote actively the participation of women at all levels in growing, future-oriented sectors of the labour market including technical and managerial occupations in order to achieve better use of human resources, and to promote actively the upgrading of existing skills levels among women.
The approach adopted in this programme is a target-based one which has focused on programmes where women have traditionally been under represented. Each year targets have been set on an incremental basis in order to achieve an increased level of women's participation. This programme has been successful and 43 per cent of participants on FÁS programmes in 1996 were women. The equivalent figure for 1990 was 32 per cent.