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

With regard to circular 12/10, while I may have clarified this last week, I am happy to do so again. It has been clarified that the responsibility is to report to the line Minister of the Department under which the board is established, not the Department in which the relevant public servant works. For example, if it is a health board, the responsibility is to the Minister for Health, and if it is an education board, it is to the Minister for Education and Skills, not the Department in which the public servant works, which could be the Department of Finance or the Department of the Taoiseach, or otherwise. The National Paediatric Hospital Development Board has its own code of governance, which is available on its website and which covers the whole issue of confidentiality and the need for board members to maintain collective confidentiality.

In regard to Mr. Paul Quinn, again, as I explained to the House last week, he met the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and discussed the situation. I understand that he judged that he had no responsibility or obligation to report to the Minister for Health on the matter of the overrun, as the chairman of the board had done so.

In regard to women on State boards, we set a target of making sure that at least 40% of people on State boards were women. That has been exceeded and it is now 41% or 42%. Last year was the first year during which more than 50% of appointments were female, and we are now aiming for a higher target to go well above 40%. The focus is particularly on boards where there is gender imbalance, which can happen both ways. One will see that on many of the education, health and social care boards there is a predominance of women and very few men, whereas on finance and enterprise boards one will see a preponderance of men rather than women. Gender balance should work both ways. The focus is on evening that out across those different types of boards and going up from 40% towards 50%.

I am also leading an initiative to increase the participation of women on boards of listed private companies, where fewer than 20% of the membership are female, which is half the proportion on State boards. Now that we have exceeded our 40% target, we are in a strong position to put pressure on the private sector to do much better. I am leading that initiative.

With regard to my own Department, I am happy to correct the Deputies. I do not appoint most of the members to NESC; they are generally appointed by what we used to call social partners. Of the appointments that have occurred since I became Taoiseach, three were made by me but on the nomination of farming bodies, and all three were male, and one was made by me but on the nomination of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, and he was male. However, of the appointments I have made myself and which I had discretion over, three of the five were female, or 60%.

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