Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent)
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128. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the steps taken to carry out the necessary assessment required under section 42 of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014. [43749/19]

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I can advise the Deputy that in February 2018, a working group was established in my Department to assess and implement the Department's obligations under Section 42 of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014.

The Group has also completed a human rights and equality assessment covering multiple divisions within the Department. A copy of the completed assessments can be found on the Department of Justice and Equality website as follows:

www.justice.ie/en/JELR/Pages/Our_Public_Sector_Equality_and_Human_Rights_Duty.

www.justice.ie/en/JELR/Public_Sector_Equality_and_Human_Rights_Duty.pdf/Files/Public_Sector_Equality_and_Human_Rights_Duty.pdf.

In addition to the assessment documents, the actions progressed by the group to date include:

- The implementation of a variety of public sector duty pilot projects across several key areas of the Department, including the Probation Service, INIS, Civil Governance, the Office for the Promotion of Migrant Integration and Human Resources.

- From 2019 onwards, governance agreements made by the Department outline the obligation for all public bodies to include the public sector duty in their strategic planning process and to report on a regular basis on their progress.

The Department will continue to take steps to embed the public sector duty values in all aspects of its functions.