Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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417. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the gender quota targets for the boards of State bodies and agencies under their remit; the level reached to date; and their future plans to meet and maintain the targets. [32755/14]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy may be aware, the Programme for Governmentincludes a commitment to take steps to ensure that all State Boards have at least 40% of each gender. I am pleased to inform the Deputy that 9 of the 17 bodies funded from my Department's Vote Group that currently have boards in place have already reached that target. For completeness, I have set out the relevant details in the table below. It may be noted that, in a number of these boards, certain appointments are made other than by way of Government or Ministerial appointment. For example, appointments may be on foot of nominations by other bodies, or by way of elections, or on an ex officiobasis. Clearly, such circumstances can have an influence on the gender balance of the boards in question.

I can assure the Deputy that I support the promotion of gender equality as an instrument for economic growth, prosperity and competitiveness and am fully committed to further promoting gender equality across all of the bodies and agencies funded from my Department's Vote Group.