Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy and all Deputies who have expressed their good wishes to me and the Minister of State, Deputy Calleary. I look forward to working with them all.

While the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform is responsible for the equality budgeting programme, my Department was one of six that participated in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform's equality budgeting pilot in 2018. Dedicated equality indicators were included in the 2018 Revised Estimates with the objective to work to achieve enhanced levels of representation of women and girls in films and screen content supported by the Irish Film Board. Equality budgeting uses impact indicators to provide information on how the allocation of resources impacts various groups in society, such as women, children and disadvantaged groups.

While the pilot scheme focused mainly on gender in 2018, with five gender objectives and one socioeconomic objective, the scope was broadened in 2019 to include other equality measures such as poverty, the promotion of inclusiveness and disability. My Department has engaged, and will continue to do so, with this process annually. While an equality budgeting advisory group has been established by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to support this process, my Department is not a member of the group. I am very supportive of equality budgeting as a means of advancing equality, reducing poverty and strengthening economic and social rights.

With regard to the pilot programme, a key lesson for my Department was the value in setting metrics as a means of driving policy change. In 2018, for example, the Irish Film Board, or Screen Ireland as it is now known, launched a scheme, POV, that was aimed at delivering on Screen Ireland's commitment to achieving a 50-50 gender parity in the Irish screen industries, both in front of and behind the camera. Screen Ireland offered enhanced production funding for female-initiated or female-driven feature films. Screen Ireland surpassed its 2018 equality budgeting targets of 5%, achieving an increase of 12% in the number of applications with female talent attached and an increase of 7% in the number of successful applications with female talent attached. Equality budgeting provides an objective way to track and measure success in this area.

A key lesson learned from participation in the pilot was that linking funding decisions to greater gender equality has paid dividends in encouraging greater equality in the film industry and provides a positive model to replicate in other policy areas. Screen Ireland is confident that 2020 will build on the success of 2018 and 2019 in terms of the participation of women in screen productions. It is my strong belief that extending equality budgeting to other policy areas in my Department will incentivise and reward positive change towards greater equality, and I will seek to expand this success into areas in the Department.

To respond to the Deputy's third question, my Department is very cognisant of the recommendations contained in the OECD report on equality budgeting. While the report recognises that equality budgeting in Ireland is in its infancy, I am pleased my Department has participated in Ireland's initiative since its inception. In recent years my Department and its bodies have engaged in a number of initiatives to promote inclusion and equality in the context of gender participation in the arts and culture sector. This work has involved staff in the culture and corporate divisions and external staff in agencies under the Department's remit working together to achieve gender balance on State boards in the arts and culture sector, which I am pleased to say stands at 49%. The project focused on support for women at a senior level in arts organisations, support for promotion to the public of the work of women artists, leadership in dealing with accusations of abuse of power and sexual harassment in sections of the arts sector, and diversity and equality training for boards and senior management of State agencies in the sector. This work was the subject of a Civil Service excellence and innovation award in 2019.

My Department will continue to focus on equality when developing policy and will be proactive in ensuring that our strategic objectives underpin equality of opportunity, access and outcomes in the arts for everyone living Ireland.

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