Ms Rosarii Mannion:

I will start with the second point first. Female participation and gender equality is an area that I am absolutely passionate about. I am delighted to report that the board of Pobal has 60% female proportional representation at the moment. I would obviously like to see greater participation across the board.

It is an area that has improved across State boards. We have much more progress to make, but it certainly has been improved. Excellent work has been done by Balance for Better Business, the Public Appointments Service and the Institute of Directors in Ireland. I assure the Chair that I will do whatever I need to do to offer a helping hand to any females out there to participate in, or apply to, boards. I will certainly do everything I can in that regard. I thank the Chair for his comments.

On the point about Covid-19, there is no doubt that the Covid-19 pandemic and the restrictions have had a disproportionate effect on the most vulnerable and marginalised individuals. Pre-existing social and economic inequalities are increasing as a result of the pandemic. We are acutely aware of that in Pobal and we are not passive bystanders. We will feed our observations to policymakers in terms of policy design and implementation and in making sure that is taken on board as much as possible and as much as it practicably can be.