Departmental Staff

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 13 July 2022

Wednesday, 13 July 2022

Ceisteanna (305)

Carol Nolan

Ceist:

305. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Education the actions that her Department and bodies under the aegis of her Department are taking to increase recruitment of members of the LGBTQIA+ communities; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38405/22]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Education

Recruitment of staff to my Department is generally through the Public Appointments Service (PAS), which is the centralised provider of recruitment, assessment and selection services across the Civil Service. All recruitment activities by the PAS are in line with the Commission for Public Service Appointment's (CPSA) Code of Practice for Appointment to Positions in the Civil Service and Public Service ensuring equity, fairness, equal opportunity, diversity and inclusion for all applicants. Their recruitment activities are also underpinned by their Equality, Inclusion and Diversity strategy 2021-2023 available at www.publicjobs.ie/documents/PASEDIStrategyDocument.pdf which identifies the key strategic priorities of greater knowledge and understanding of diversity in the recruitment market and the Irish public sector and also recruitment and selection processes that encourage and enable access to candidates from diverse backgrounds. In the case of internal promotion competitions in my Department, all processes are in line with the CPSA code of practice and internal interview board members are required to participate in unconscious bias training to eliminate stereotyping and encourage diversity.

My Department actively supports Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in the workplace through a number of initiatives for staff to promote the EDI conversation in the Department.

The requested information in respect of the Department’s aegis bodies is not held by my Department. Contact details for these bodies are set out in the following document should the Deputy wish to contact them directly with this query.

Contact E-Mail Addresses for State Bodies under the Remit of the Department of Education as at 29 th March 2022

Name of Body	Dedicated Email address for the Members of the Oireachtas	Designated Official Responsible for assisting Oireachtas Members
An Chomhairle um Oideachais Gaeltachta agus Gaelscolaíochta	[e-mail]	[e-mail]
Educational Research Centre	[e-mail]	[e-mail]
National Centre for Guidance in Education	[e-mail]	[e-mail]
National Council for Curriculum and Assessment Note 1	[e-mail]	[e-mail]
State Examinations Commission	[e-mail]	[e-mail]
The Teaching Council	[e-mail]	[e-mail]
National Council for Special Education	[e-mail]	[e-mail] and [e-mail]
Residential Institutions Statutory Fund – Caranua	[e-mail]	[e-mail]

Note 1 - The spelling of the NCCA e-mail address to which Oireachtas queries may be addressed has been verified with the NCCA as being accurate.