Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In 2016, Science Foundation Ireland launched the SFI gender strategy which provided a comprehensive framework to streamline gender initiatives across all SFIs funding programmes, with the overarching aim of improving the gender balance among its award holders. SFI sets a target for gender representation in its portfolio. The original target was 25% female award holders. This target was revised upwards to 30% in 2017 after the original target was reached. As a result, SFI has seen an increase in female award holders in its portfolio of awards from 21% in 2015 to 29% in 2019.

I thank the Senators for raising the issues. The Minister, Deputy Harris, and I take them on board and take them very seriously. We have, of course, much done in this area but there is more to do. I also take on board the points raised by both Senators in that we want to avoid tokenism and that people achieve progression by virtue of ability. We should not get into a gender balancing exercise purely for that purpose alone. People should get there on merit also.