Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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563. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his plans to reflect and deliver on a public duty (details supplied) in its statement of strategy due to be published in October 2016; the way his Department is engaging with the programme for a partnership Government commitment to equality and gender proofing in the Departmental and budgetary process; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28231/16]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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My Department is currently preparing a new Statement of Strategy which will set out the key objectives, outputs and related strategies for the period 2017 to 2019. As part of this process my Department is assessing and identifying the human rights and equality issues that are relevant to its functions as an employer, policy maker and service provider. This assessment will include details of measures to address any issues identified.

My Department has already implemented a number of measures to improve gender and equality proofing. In developing new policies and programmes, consultation with interested stakeholders is an integral part of the process and to further improve our capacity in this area, a stakeholder engagement toolkit is being prepared. Our website was re-designed in 2015 in order to make it more user friendly and accessible for the public. This included a 'plain English' programme with the National Adult Literacy Agency to ensure that members of the public could maximise public access to strategy and policy documents. Memoranda for Government include an assessment of gender proofing as a matter of course and in accordance with Cabinet procedures.  

The Department has undertaken a leadership development programme for all senior managers which included awareness of unconscious bias and has undertaken mandatory training for all staff on Dignity at Work Policy and flexible working schemes. Finally, my Department has also  participated in the Leadership development programme for female Principal Officers run by the Gender Equality Unit in the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform.