Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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98. To ask the Taoiseach the gender balance on each of the State boards under his remit, in tabular form. [48887/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I appoint members to the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) under the National Economic and Social Development Office Act 2006 and the NESC (Alteration of Composition) Order 2010 - SI 603/ 2010.

In the case of the NESC, the legislation provides that I appoint members on the nomination of the organisations and interests set out, ie business and employer, ICTU, farming and agriculture, community and voluntary and environmental sectors, public servants and independent members. The public servants are mainly Secretaries General and must include a representative of my Department and the Department of Finance. In the independent category three independent members have been appointed, one of whom is a woman. There are four vacancies in this category at the moment and these will be filled in accordance with the Guidelines on Appointments to State Boards.

The Statistics Act 1993 provides for an eight member National Statistics Board, including the Director General of the CSO, ex officio, and an Assistant Secretary from my Department and the Department of Finance. Two members are nominated by the Taoiseach and three by organisations representative of the users of official statistics and providers of information under the Act. The two independent members appointed by the Taoiseach are women.

The following table sets out the required information.

These percentages include members appointed in an ex-officio capacity or on the basis of nominations from sectoral organisations.