Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent)
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245. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the external consultancy organisation or provider which delivered diversity and inclusion training within his Department in each of the years 2018 to 2021 and to date in 2022; the costs associated with such services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16385/22]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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My Department believes that a diverse workforce, supported by an inclusive culture, can be of great benefit to our organisation and the citizens we represent and serve. Diversity in our workforce can lead to better decision-making, problem-solving, risk management, governance, talent attraction and retention, and enhanced employee engagement.

All public bodies in Ireland have a responsibility, under the Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty or Public Sector Duty, to promote equality, prevent discrimination and protect the human rights of their employees, customers, service users and everyone affected by their policies and plans. This is a legal obligation and is contained in Section 42 of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Act 2014. My Department takes this duty very seriously.

Since 1^stof January 2018 to date, we have spent €6,800 on external providers. We have provided Diversity and Inclusion support to staff members at a total cost of €6,300 to the Department, from two external providers, the IPA and Carr Communications. This includes Interview Board Training comprising of awareness of the Commission for Public Service Appointments’ (CPSA) Code of Practice, the 9 grounds for discrimination and unconscious bias. Additionally, our PRIDE@Transport Staff Network arranged a “History of PRIDE” session for staff with Shout Out to celebrate PRIDE. The cost was €500.

More recently, on 24^thMarch 2022, we delivered a webinar by Carr Communications on unconscious bias for all staff. The charge was €950 and the recording is made available to staff via our internal systems for a further 30 days.

A full breakdown of the spend in provided in the table below.

We are currently preparing a request for Disability Awareness Training to be made available to all Department staff members. We are also awaiting the introduction of a number of learning interventions currently in development by OneLearning, the Civil Service Learning and Development Centre, including Public Sector Duty, Human Rights and Equality training which was developed in conjunction with the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC). It is anticipated these interventions will begin to come online from April 2022.