Mr. John Howlin:

The Senator would be aware that the 20% is a very clear target. There is a significant awareness across the whole of the Civil Service, including in my own Department at senior levels, about that and, quite frankly, about the challenges of meeting that. There have been and are ongoing discussions about what that might mean. There is a regular discussion around recruitment. Recruitment generally is a matter which involves some discussion at the moment. This is something that there is a large amount of discussion about. The conference I mentioned would be having very senior HR managers from across the public service attending, so there is a very clear awareness that the target is there, that this is Government policy and that it needs to be met. Whether I am coming under pressure is probably a different question but it is something we are committed to in the Department and in our engagement with the Public Appointments Service, PAS, through the Civil Service Renewal 2030 plan and through the transformation plan across the public service as well. Any Government commitment and policy is something we would be working towards delivering upon.