Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I am not privy to some of the content of the claims he has of cases where he suggests unnecessary appeals may have been made to contest findings or to some of the other concerns he raised. The Higher Education Authority is very concerned about gender equality and has initiated a system-wide review of higher education institutions' gender profiles and gender-equality policies encompassing all higher education institutions under its remit in 2015.

The review process formally began in September 2015 with the development of the terms of reference and the appointment of the expert group. With the support of the HEA, the review was conducted by a five-member independent expert group chaired by Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, former European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science. The report of the expert group regarding the HEA national review of gender equality in higher education institutions was published in June 2016 and I welcomed its publication. The expert group's 61 recommendations provide an informed and considered basis for a collective and participatory national approach to attaining gender equality in Irish higher education. The report includes objectives, recommendations, proposed timings and key performance indicators for all relevant stakeholders in the higher education sector. It also contains an in-depth analysis of the gender balance of higher education staff across all grades of employment, as well as management teams, academic councils and governing boards. As the chair of the group, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn said at the launch, "This report clearly demonstrates that significant gender inequality remains in higher education, and this must be addressed - for equality, social and economic reasons."

With regard to the next steps, the expert group's recommendations provide an informed and considered basis for a collective approach to this, in attaining gender equality, but the achievement of true gender equality in Irish higher education institutions requires systematic positive action from all stakeholders. The review proposes that the next step should see the development of a detailed implementation plan, which will include a robust system of follow-up evaluation and performance monitoring linked to funding through the HEA's strategic dialogue process. It is important that we now ensure this detailed implementation plan is developed, to build on the work of this expert group, and I welcome the fact that officials from the Department of Education and Skills will now liaise with the HEA, the institutes of higher education, research funding agencies and other key stakeholders in the development of such a detailed implementation plan. Higher education institutions will risk funding penalties if they fail to address gender inequality following the development of the detailed implementation plan.

It is also important to remember that Irish girls and young women continue to outperform their male counterparts in educational attainment. Ireland currently occupies the top position for female graduates across the European Union as measured in the keynote statistics for the European Union's economic growth policy.

What is clearly outlined is all institutions will have to develop an implementation plan to address weaknesses that have been exposed. Under the recommendations, it is intended a number of practical measures will be put in place, for example, a vice president for equality, a key decision-making body with a balanced membership, and a gender equality sub-committee of the governing authority. Each higher education institution will have an academically-led gender equality forum and so on. There are many recommendations which if acted on will hopefully address some of the Deputy's concerns.

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