Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party)
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240. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to outline the initiatives to address gender inequalities in the agriculture and food industry and to promote female participation and leadership; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40714/24]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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An increased grant rate of 60% under the Women Farmer Capital Investment Scheme to fund on-farm investments by trained women farmers.

• The inclusion of an option to establish women-only groups in the current Knowledge Transfer Programme.
• Improved recording and reporting of gender data and the leveraging of the National CAP Network to increase the involvement of all women in the implementation of CAP.
• A European Innovation Partnership open call in April 2024 for proposals on “innovative approaches to support greater gender balance in farming in Ireland”.

I am a strong advocate of the need for greater female representation on the State Boards under my remit. During my tenure I have appointed and reappointed 49 women to these Boards. At the time of my appointment 2 boards out of 12 had reached the 40% gender target, whereas now 9 out of 13 have reached this target.

Ireland’s agri-food strategy, Food Vision 2030 also recognises the importance of gender balance to the long-term sustainable future for primary producers which includes actions to promote and improve gender balance at all levels within the sector. One such commitment was to hold a National Dialogue on Women in Agriculture, which was held in February 2023. This provided a platform to explore gender equality in farming and the agri-food sector generally. A report and action plan were published earlier this year.

A working group has been established to oversee implementation of the action plan, which is ongoing. In support of their work I wrote to the CEOs of state bodies under my remit encouraging them to consider how they might implement relevant actions within their organisations.

I am proud to be the first Minister to have a specific focus on supporting women farmers and I will continue to support them in the time ahead.