Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

25. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will provide in tabular form the current gender breakdown across all Government Departments from assistant principal officer upwards; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26126/15]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

At end-Q1 2015 the gender breakdown across all Government Departments from Assistant Principal level and upwards was:

The Public Sector in Ireland has made strong efforts to promote equal opportunities and to achieve gender balance.  In the Civil Service the Gender Equality Policy has been in operation since 2001.  It highlighted the need to introduce a modern approach to equality in human resource areas such as recruitment, promotion and training and recommended a number of practical steps which can be taken by Departments to promote equality of opportunity in these areas. In addition, to the equal opportunities policy, gender policy is also about setting strategic objectives at Department level.  Human Resources Management (HRM) policy areas are asked to incorporate gender equality into their HR strategies and policies.  Guidance material has also been produced on affirmative action 'Making Gender Equality Happen: Guidance on Affirmative Action in the targets contained in the National Women's Strategy 2007-2016 for the percentage of women in the grades of AP and PO in the Civil Service has already been well exceeded for both grades.

Recently, the Department of Justice and Equality, with the assistance of funding from the EU's PROGRESS programme and supported by my Department, has launched a pilot mentoring and leadership development programme to increase the number of women in the top decision-making levels of the Civil Service.  The pilot is cross-Departmental with female Principal Officers from each of the 16 Government Departments participating in the programme.  The participants are receiving executive coaching, mentoring and leadership development training which is focused at the competencies required at the Assistant Secretary General grade.

Notwithstanding the progress which has been made in increasing the participation of women in the work force, there remains a clear need to continue to increase female participation at senior levels in the Civil Service.  To this end, the Civil Service Renewal Plan contains a commitment to improve gender balance at each level by reviewing supports and policies to ensure these are impactful and measurable.