Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for that response. His commitment to making change in this area and to further advancing women in leadership roles is reassuring. As he noted, I have brought forward my own Bill in this area supported by the National Women's Council of Ireland.

The ambition behind it is to achieve better balance in boardrooms through quotas. I am really keen to see this progressed and see our policy on gender representation start to catch up with our European neighbours.

As the Tánaiste said, Balance for Better Business does incredible work in this area. It is really encouraging to see us making progress in certain areas but the level of change we need is just not going to happen fast enough on the route we are currently on. It is a target for Balance for Better Business that no listed companies should have all-male boards but as the Tánaiste referred to himself, that is still the case and in fact there are five all-male boards in Ireland currently. I would love to hear how the Tánaiste feels we as a Government could change this culture of male dominance quickly.

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