The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Michael McDowell T.D. today hosted a breakfast in the National Gallery to celebrate International Women's Day 2006.

International Women's Day has been celebrating the achievements of women since 1911 and is marked all over the world.  It now coincides with the meeting of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women which is convened annually in New York.  The focus of this year's meeting of the CSW is on women and development and on women in decision making. 

The Minister welcomed the discussion taking place in New York on the advancement of women in decision making.  He noted that this is one of a number of aspects of Irish life where the participation of women could be and should be better.  The Minister also identified representative politics and science and technology as sectors in which he would particularly welcome the greater advancement of women. 

The Minister noted "While considerable progress had been made in advancing the role of women in Ireland, particularly through a strong body of equality legislation, there is still a need to take proactive action in some areas.  I have been asked by Government to bring forward proposals for a National Women's Strategy, linking the future actions all Government Departments.  The Strategy will, when complete, be a far reaching document and I look forward to publishing it later this year."


8 March, 2006. 

 

Note for Editors

 

GOVERNMENT ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE GENDER EQUALITY AREA


LEGISLATION

Employment Equality Act, 1998

The Employment Equality Act, 1998, which came into operation on 18 October, 1999, repealed and re-enacted the Employment Equality Act, 1977 and the Anti-Discrimination (Pay) Act, 1984. The 1998 Act prohibits discrimination in relation to employment on nine grounds, namely: race, gender, marital status, family status, disability, age, religious belief, sexual orientation and membership of the Traveller community. The Act is comprehensive and deals with all areas relevant to employment including access to employment, conditions of employment, remuneration, promotion and vocational training.

 

Equal Status Act, 2000

The Equal Status Act, 2000, came into operation on 25 October 2000.  This Act gives protection against discrimination in non-workplace areas and thus complements the Employment Equality Act 1998.  The Act prohibits direct and indirect discrimination on the grounds of race, gender, marital status, family status, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, colour, nationality, national or ethnic origin and membership of the Traveller community and "victimisation", where an individual is treated less favourably as a result of having participated in processes under the legislation. The Act covers all goods and services which are available to the public, whether on payment or not and irrespective of whether provided by the public sector or private sector. 

 

Equality Act, 2004

The Equality Act of 2004 was necessary to implement the employment and non-employment aspects of the Race Directive (2000/43/EC), the Framework Employment Directive (2000/78/EC) and the Gender Equal Treatment Directive (2002/73/EC).  The opportunity was also taken in this Act to provide for a number of procedural amendments to the Employment Equality Act 1998 and the Equal Status Act 2000. The nine grounds of discrimination, namely Gender; Marital status; Family Status; Sexual Orientation; Religion; Age; Disability; Race; Membership of the Traveller Community remain unchanged by this new Act.

 

Maternity Protection Act 1994 (Extension of Periods of Leave) Order 2006 and Adoptive Leave Act 1995 (Extension of Periods of Leave) Order 2006

This legislation increases the duration of maternity and adoptive leave to come into effect on 1 March 2006 and 1 March 2007.  These increases bring the total maternity and adoptive leave entitlements to 42 and 40 weeks respectively, an increase of 133% and 186% since 1997.

 

Parental Leave Act 1998

The Parental Leave Act 1998 provides an individual and non-transferable entitlement to both parents to 14 weeks unpaid leave from work to take care of young children.  The leave must be taken before the child reaches 5 years of age, except in certain circumstances in the case of an adopted child. 

The Act also provides an entitlement to limited paid force majeure leave for urgent family reasons owing to the injury or illness of an immediate family member, in circumstances where the presence of the employee, at the place where the family member is ill or injured, is indispensable. 

 

NATIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS

 

Commitment to achievement of 40% target of female representation of women on State Boards

 

Five reports have been noted by the Government to date.

The most recent report to Government, covering the period 1 July to 31 December 2004 shows that, at the end of December 2004, women made up 32% of the total membership of State Boards. Provisional figures show this had increased to 34% by end of December 2005. 17% of Chairpersons were women.

 

EU Supported Equality for Women Measure - Phase I

Under Phase I of the Equality for Women Measure, 14.5m Euro was allocated to 70 projects nationwide for the period 2001-2004.  These projects aim at improving the economic, social, cultural and political lives of women, including, improving  women's access to education, training and employment; achieving equality for women in the workplace and business;  and increasing participation of women in the workplace and in local authority/agency planning and development structures.

 

EU Supported Equality for Women Measure - Phase II

Funding of 7m Euro has been allocated to fund the development of projects located in RAPID areas.  In addition, a sum of 2m Euro has been allocated to fund the mainstreaming of learning developed in Phase I of the Measure.  Included in this figure is 500,000 Euro which has been ring fenced for the mainstreaming of Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) projects.

A further 1m Euro has been allocated to FAS to mainstream the "Gateways for Women" initiative which was developed under Phase I.  This project is targeting women seeking to return to the labour market.
Inclusion of Gender Equality as one of the Horizontal Principles in the National Development Plan

Five horizontal principles were included in the National Development Plan (NDP), one of which is gender equality.  All measures funded under the NDP had to give consideration to gender equality. Following the mid-term review, measures were identified to prioritise gender equality.   Achievements in relation to gender equality are included in the regular reporting mechanisms under the NDP. 

The NDP/CSF Equal Opportunities and Social Inclusion Coordinating Committee was established to monitor and promote the implementation of three of the horizontal principles (Gender Equality, Wider Equality grounds and Social Inclusion) across the NDP.

 

Establishment of the NDP Gender Equality Unit

The NDP Gender Equality Unit is funded through the Employment and Human Resources Development programme of the NDP.  The Unit has funding of 5.36 million Euro over the period 2000 to 2006.

The remit of the Unit is to advise policy makers on how to incorporate a gender equality perspective into the development, implementation and evaluation of NDP policies.

A key area of work for the Unit is monitoring the extent to which commitments made in NDP programmes to promote gender equality are implemented.  This work is carried out through the Unit's representation on all NDP monitoring committees.

The Unit recently published innovative research into Time Use in Ireland which provides a day-to-day diary of how women and men in Irish society divide their time.

 

Research on the Gender Pay Gap

Under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness (2000-2002), a Consultative Group on Male/Female Wage Differentials was established.  In 2003, the Group reported to Government on the actions required to address the Gender Pay Gap based on the issues identified in the 2000 ESRI report "How unequal - Men and Women In the Irish Labour Market."

Measures which impacted positively on the Gender Pay Gap are:

Further research into the Graduate Gender Pay Gap - "Degrees of Equality: Gender Pay Differentials among Recent Graduates" - was published in late-2005.  This report showed that a Gender Pay Gap emerged within three years of graduation.

 

Establishment of the National Steering Committee on Violence Against Women

The National Steering Committee on Violence Against Women comprises representatives from all of the relevant Government Departments as well as key voluntary groups; it is charged with coordinating the State's response to the issue of violence against women.  The NSC is currently working on a new Strategy and Action Plan which will build on the work achieved to date and chart progress for the future.  The Plan, which is expected to include the development of a long-term and wide ranging strategy for raising public awareness of the issue of violence against women should be completed this year and will be broadly disseminated in advance of implementation.

In recent years they have conducted a series of successful campaigns dealing with various aspects of violence against women.  In 2005, as part of a joint North/South initiative, they ran a national TV and radio advertising campaign focusing on the effects domestic violence on children.

In addition, last year the NSC established a sub-group (chaired by the Department of Health and Children) to review the medical/forensic services available to victims of sexual assault.  The report of this group and its recommendation are currently under consideration in the Department of Health and Children and in the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform.

The NSC also established an interdepartmental sub-group on funding to examine the needs of the sector and the resources currently available.  It is likely that improved coordination arrangements will flow from this work.

 

Collection of Statistics

The collection of gender disaggregated statistics and the publication of material such as the CSO's annual publication on Men and Women in Ireland assists policy makers in measuring outcomes of service interventions and other data in relation to the population.  This is of particular assistance in forward planning.

 

INTERNATIONAL REVIEW AND ACHIEVEMENTS

 

Report to the United Nations on the National Plan for Wome n 2002 on the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action

The Report to the United Nations on the National Plan for Women 2002 on the Implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action is Ireland's response to the invitation to government made in the Political Declaration by the United Nations General Assembly in New York in 2000 to develop and implement national action plans to work towards the advancement of women in all areas of society.

The Report to the UN on the National Plan for Women 2002, submitted to the UN in October 2002, is Ireland's programme to advance the situation of women across the twelve Critical Areas of Concern of the Beijing Platform for Action.

 

Examination of Ireland's combined 4th and 5th reports under the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)

The examination of Ireland's combined Fourth and Fifth Reports on progress under the UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) was held in New York in July 2005, following the submission of the Reports in June 2003.  

The CEDAW Committee issues concluding comments and recommendations for further action following the examination.  These reports were positively received by the Committee and the comments were generally favourable.  The Committee raised a number of issues which they deemed to require some further action.

This Department has circulated the Committee's comments and recommendations to all relevant Government Departments asking that they consider them and report on how the issues might be advanced before Ireland's next report under CEDAW, which is due for submission to the UN CEDAW Committee in January 2007.