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

I thank the Deputy. She has put her finger on it. In many ways, the approach we have been following up until now is producing good results in the round. State boards are already ahead of the 40% target and publicly-listed companies are at over 30% and heading for 40%. However, that does not deal with the hold-outs that still have all-male boards or maybe just one or two women on their boards. I have no doubt we will get better decisions made in organisations that have proper balance and diversity on their boards. The legislation the Deputy has put forward is really useful in that regard. We are not going to oppose it when it comes to the Chamber and I look forward to the debate on it. There is an EU directive in this space that is coming down the tracks as well so we will have to see how it ties in with that. I am also interested in the report of the Oireachtas Joint Committee that is looking at the recommendation from the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality.

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