Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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629. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the measures she intends to take to increase female participation in the labour market and to deal with the issue of part-time under-employment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16037/16]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Ireland’s female seasonally-adjusted participation rate peaked at 54.7% before declining during the recession, dipping to 52.5% in 2012. Since then there has been a gradual recovery, with the figure reaching 52.9% in the first quarter of 2016.

Female participation rates have historically been relatively low in Ireland, even prior to the last economic downturn. Quality affordable childcare is seen as the single greatest obstacle to increasing the participation rate. The Programme for a Partnership Government agreed in May that childcare will not just be a priority for my colleague the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, but across government. The Programme commits the Government to conducting and publishing an independent review of the cost of providing quality childcare in private and community settings, consistent with the principle of ongoing professionalisation of the sector. In addition the Pathways to work Strategy 2016-2020 includes a commitment to increase access to quality and affordable childcare for parents transitioning to employment. This strategy also confirms that in addition to focusing on people who are registered as unemployed, activation during a period of economic growth and recovery may seek to encourage other ‘non-active’ cohorts to participate in the labour market. This may be by means of supportive services (training, job search assistance, financial incentives etc.), by means of increased conditionality in relation to welfare entitlement or by a combination of both. Other efforts under the aegis of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs are ongoing.

The Deputy also referred to part-time underemployment. There has been a strong downward trend in the figures for part-time underemployment in recent years. After peaking at over 150,000 in 2012, this shrank to 99,100 in the first quarter of 2016. Significantly fewer people are now in a position where they would accept more work if it was available.