Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party)
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114. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his progress in continuing the initiatives in the Gender Action Plan towards tackling gender inequality in our education sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [58641/21]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The HEA Centre of Excellence for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion is tasked with overseeing the implementation of the recommendations of the 2016 HEA National Review of Gender Equality and the Gender Action Plan 2018-2020, and the HEA now collects annual progress reports from HEIs. A summary report of progress on gender equality in Irish HEIs (2016 – 2019) was produced and is available on the HEA website.

In addition to the submission of progress updates, the Governing Authority of a HEI must submit a statement to the HEA confirming that the Institution has an action plan in place and that this action plan is being implemented as part of its Annual Governance Statements. All HEIs are required to submit an Annual Governance Statement and Statement of Internal Control to the HEA, covering a comprehensive list of governance requirements, with non-compliance in any matter to be identified within the statement.

Progress is continuing on the range of indicators included in the Gender Action Plan:

- All HEIs haveinstitutional gender action plansand submit annual progress updates to the HEA.

- The HEA continues to publish the Higher Education Institutional Staff Profiles by Genderon an annual basis.

- New and additional gender-specific posts - the Senior Academic Leadership Initiative was launched in 2019and 20 posts at senior academic level were awarded to Irish HEIs under the first cycle of the initiative. It is expected that 10 posts will be awarded under the second cycle of the initiative.

- Attainment of Athena SWAN awardsis linked to eligibility for research funding from the Environmental Protection Agency, Health Research Board, Irish Research Council, and Science Foundation Ireland. 19 HEIs achieved a Bronze award and 69 departmental awards (including one Silver award) have been made.

- €286,114 was awarded under the Gender Equality Enhancement Fund 2020to advance gender equality initiatives in Irish higher education.