Niamh Smyth
Ceist:316. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media the progress made on the equality objectives of her Department specifically in relation to women. [11083/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraTuesday, 1 March 2022
Ceisteanna (316)
Freagraí scríofa
The support and promotion of diversity, social inclusion and full and effective female participation across the Department’s sectors and society in line with Programme for Government commitment is one of the key cross cutting goals identified in my Department's Statement of Strategy 2021-2023, published last year.
My Department participates in the Inter-Departmental Strategy Committee for the National Strategy on Women and Girls, chaired by the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, and has a number of actions within this national strategy in relation to participation of women in the arts and sport.
The three outcomes for which my Department has responsibility are as follows:
- Greater visibility of women in the arts, as participants and in content
- Greater female participation in sport and physical activity
- Greater female representation in the leadership of sport organisations
In relation to greater visibility of women in arts, the achievement of my Department’s outcome under the Strategy is primarily based on the implementation of the Audio Visual Action Plan and in particular Screen Ireland’s Gender Equality Six Point Plan.
In 2019, 37% of all funded projects had female directors while 43% of all funded projects had female writers. While full gender equality is yet to be achieved, the figures represent a consistent improvement up from 10% and 27% respectively in 2015, when Screen Ireland first announced its six-point plan on gender equality. Screen Ireland has recently announced a record breaking year for the sector in 2021 and I look forward to these positive trends being continued as further details of activity become available.
In addition to these developments, my Department developed and launched Mná100 last year as part of the Decade of Centenaries Programme 2012-2023. www.mna100.ie is an engaging on-line platform dedicated to highlighting the role of women in this current period of commemoration. The web-site has attracted over 35,000 visitors to date and raises the profile of women during this period through interesting webinars, on-line exhibitions, research, a new podcast series and collaborations with partners such as the National cultural Institutions, local authority partners and contemporary artists.
My Department also supports the Markievicz bursaries in partnership with the Arts Council. The bursaries are intended to support artists to develop their craft and ultimately produce great art that recognises and commemorates the role of women in the historical period covered by the Decade of Centenaries and beyond.
The Arts council’s analysis of its individual awards in 2019 is published at www.artscouncil.ie/uploadedFiles/wwwartscouncilie/Content/Publications/Strategic_Development/Individual%20Awards%202019%20Report%20on%20Gender%20Statistics_April%202020.pdf. It shows that 63% of recipients in that year were female and that 54% of the money awarded was to women.
In addition, in 2020, my Department provided a grant of €1m to the Irish Museum of Modern Art and the Crawford Art Gallery for the purpose of acquiring work by Irish artists for the National Collection. After a period of extensive research and consultation, the National Cultural Institutions purchased 422 works by 70 artists, of whom 45 were female. This addition of new works, 64% of which were by women, is an important step in establishing a greater gender balance in our National Collections. 8 of our National Cultural Institutions are led by women.
Regarding those outcomes in the area of sport, a fundamental aim of the Government’s National Sports Policy 2018-2027 is to increase the levels of participation in sport and physical activity across the population, with a specific focus on less represented groups including women and girls and to eliminate the gender participation gap in sport entirely by 2027. One of my priorities in 2021 was to eliminate the funding gap that existed in grant funding for male and female Gaelic players. This aim have been achieved, ensuring that we have now parity in terms of grant funding.
Last year, Sport Ireland announced an investment of €4m in the Women in Sport Programme for the two years 2021 and 2022. 45 NGBs will receive funding under this investment. A further €265,000 was invested last year in the Local Sports Partnerships under the Programme.
A gender gap is beginning to re-emerge as COVID 19 restrictions are lifted. To this end, many National Governing Bodies are delivering Women in Sport and Dormant Accounts Funded Programmes this winter which will actively target populations that have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic including females, economically and socially disadvantaged communities, people with a disability and ethnic minorities.
Addressing women’s participation at all levels in sport is an important element of the National Sports Policy. That includes women in leadership positions, such as board members of National Governing Bodies. The National Sports Policy had originally set a target of 30% of either gender on the Boards of funded bodies by 2027. In the new Action Plan for Sport 2021-2023, which was published in November 2021, we have set a revised target for all NGBs to achieve 40% gender representation on their boards by the end of 2023. It is a priority to enable women to take more leadership positions in sport and the 40% target reflects this prioritisation.
I would refer the Deputy to the detailed reply on the progress of our work as outlined by my colleague Minister of State Jack Chambers TD, in his reply to Dáil Question No. 50 of Thursday 24 February.
Furthermore, there are twenty-one varied and diverse State Boards under the remit of the Department. At the end of 2021, there was an average of 50% female representation on these boards of these bodies.
I trust that this information is of assistance to the Deputy.
Question No. 317 answered with Question No. 312.
Question No. 318 answered with Question No. 310.