Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail)

I agree with the thrust of what Senator Tuffy said. It is important that gender balance is achieved on all boards. It is Government policy and it has been the policy of successive Governments to try and achieve that. We are specifically aiming at having greater involvement of women. However, I am not convinced that a prescriptive 40% is the best approach to the matter. It will work better as an aspirational target. There are some areas where it is more difficult to achieve balance. It is important that those who are appointed have the expertise to fulfil the functions and responsibilities they are given, but I accept that there should be a bias in favour of ensuring a greater participation of women on these boards. The ideal would be to achieve a 50:50 balance. While boards may vary according to their nature and function, people wish to see greater female participation. However, I do not agree that we should prescribe the percentage.