Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 17 May 2001

Vol. 536 No. 4

Written Answers. - Departmental Appointments.

Jan O'Sullivan

Ceist:

32 Ms O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Finance the number of persons appointed to boards, committees, task forces or other bodies operating under the aegis of his Department; the percentage of such appointments who were female; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14238/01]

Minister for Finance (Mr. McCreevy)

I have appointed the following number of people to boards, committees, task forces or other bodies operating under the aegis of my Department since I took office.

Name of Board etc.	Number ofAppointments	Number ofFemale Appointments	Percentage
Central Bank of Ireland	9	0	0%
ICC Bank plc	12	1	8%
ACC Bank plc	13	2	15%
An Post The National Lottery Company	9	1	11%
Determination Committees	19	7	36.85%
National Treasury Management Agency	1	0	0%
National Pensions Reserve Fund Commission	7	1	14.3%
Interdepartmental Advisory Committee in relation to the Charitable Lotteries Fund	8	3	37.5%
Working Group to advise on the Accountability of Secretaries General and Accounting Officers	9	2	22%
Commission on Public Service Pensions*	1	1	100%
Steering Group on Systems Review of the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development.	1	0	0%
Board of the Revenue Commissioners	1	0	0%
The Euro Changeover Board of Ireland**	22	4	18%
Public Service Benchmarking Body	7	1	14.3%
Review Body on Higher Remuneration in the Public Service***	2	0	0%
Valuation Tribunal	5	0	0%

*The appointee was a nominee of SIPTU.

**Please note with regard to the Euro Changeover Board of Ireland I invited 18 relevant organisations to nominate a representative to this board.

***The members of the review body were appointed by the Government on the nomination of the Minister.

Research on gender imbalance in the Civil Service at HEO level and above, commissioned as part of the SMI process, and published in 1999, showed that women were under-represented at senior management levels in the Civil Service and that progress towards a better balance of men and women in those grades had been minimal in the ten year period from 1987 to 1997.

The main research findings, together with a package of measures based on the recommendations in the report, were endorsed by the Government and were presented by the Taoiseach and myself at the launch of the current phase of the strategic management initiative for the Civil Service in July 1999.

In June 2000, the Government approved the new gender equality policy in principle and directed that consultations with the staff unions on the implementation of the new policy should begin. A final draft of the policy is now being considered by the unions. It is expected that this will be concluded shortly and then will be considered by the Government. It is hoped that the policy will be announced in the summer.