Written answers

Tuesday, 23 September 2014

Department of An Taoiseach

Appointments to State Boards

Photo of Barry CowenBarry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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37. To ask the Taoiseach the gender quota targets for the boards of State bodies and agencies under his remit; the level reached to date; and his plans to meet and maintain the targets [35445/14]

Photo of Enda KennyEnda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I make appointments to the National Economic and Social Development Office (NESDO), the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) and the National Statistics Board (NSB). The target is for 40% representation of each gender on each of the Boards by 2016.

At its meeting on 23 July 2014, the Government approved measures to strengthen the gender balance on State Boards with a view to meeting this target, including the development of implementation plans at Departmental level by end September 2014.

National Economic and Social Development Office (NESDO)

NESDO is the body corporate for the National Economic and Social Council (NESC). The Board compromises ex –officio,the Chair and Deputy Chair of the NESC, both of whom are civil servants from my Department and are male.

National Economic and Social Council (NESC)

NESC consists of thirty four members. I have discretion to appoint the eight members and there is currently a 50%/50% female/male representation among this group. Overall, gender balance is twenty five male to nine female (74%/26%). Twenty members are appointed on the basis of nominations by other groups and organisations. Six Council members are civil servants appointed in an ex-officiocapacity (five Secretaries General and one Assistant Secretary).

Approaches to future appointments will endeavour to address gender balance on the NESC by encouraging nominating bodies and organisations to give full consideration to the issue of gender balance when meeting any changes to their representation. I will continue to take full account of gender balance when making any appointments.

The National Statistics Board

The NSB consists of eight members. I have discretion to appoint five members and there is currently a 60%40% female/male representation among this group. The gender balance is three female members (including the Chairperson) to five male members (37.5%/62.5%). Two board members are male civil servants at Assistant Secretary level with relevant functional responsibility in the Departments of the Taoiseach and Finance. The Director General of the Central Statistics Office (CSO) is an ex-officio appointment. The current Director General is male.

The current Board shows a significant improvement in gender balance, with overall female representation on the NSB at 37.5%, up from 12.5% on the previous Board.

The term of the current Board runs until end 2016. If a vacancy was to arise before the end of the Board’s term, the appointment process will take full account of gender balance when choosing the most suitable candidate.

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