Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I might come back to the Deputy on the well-being and gender budgeting, and defer to the Department of Finance on that issue. I do not want to give the Deputy an inaccurate answer.

In my Department, every time a significant decision is made that requires a decision or information, we bring a memorandum to Government on which a gender analysis is conducted as to the impact, if any, of the proposal. I sometimes feel it is a bit of a box-ticking exercise, and maybe we need to be more thorough in how we do that. The Irish Government Economic Evaluation Service, IGEES, could help us to better factor that into our decision-making. It is something about which I need to talk to my Secretary General.

The Government is definitely open to the suggestion the Deputy made in her final question. I cannot remember what options were available on the census. Was it only male or female? I note that it was. There should be a third option. I need advice from the statisticians in the Central Statistics Office, CSO, about how best to do that. Perhaps we could provide a box labelled "other" and ask respondents to write in or we could provide a list of options. I am not sure of the best way to do that.