The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue has said that there is a “strong focus on gender balance” in his department.
On International Women’s Day (March 8), the minister stated that the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) is committed to “diversity, inclusion and the fair and equal treatment of all”.
A policy on diversity, equality and inclusion was launched in the department in 2018.
“These core values are important for our employees, for our clients and for stakeholders of the department who avail of our wide range of services and for our sector as a whole,” McConalogue said.
“There has been a strong focus on gender balance in my department over the past decade and more, with a gender balance steering group in place.
“There have been continuous improvements in gender balance as a result and we welcome the increased representation of women at management levels across all areas of our organisation in recent years,” the minister stated.
Minister of State at DAFM, Pippa Hackett explained that the gender pay gap within the department has been narrowed from 20.5% in 2013 to 13.2% in 2020.
“In addition, we as a department are fully committed to achieving the government target of 40% gender balance on the boards of our 12 state bodies,” Hackett added.
McConalogue
Minister McConalogue outlined that the government’s agri-food strategy, Food Vision 2030 also recognises the importance of gender balance to “the long-term sustainable future for primary producers”.
The plan commits to holding a national dialogue focused on women in agriculture.
The minister said that the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Strategic Plan also proposes gender equality measures:
- Increased rate of grant aid to 60% for women aged 41-66 years under Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) investments;
- Knowledge Transfer (KT) Programme – Women only KT Groups;
- European Innovation Partnerships (EIP) – potential for a call for proposals to incentivise women’s participation in agriculture;
- Improved recording, collection and reporting on gender data across all CAP schemes.
“We live in an ever-changing society, and on International Women’s Day, we continue to look at more interventions, initiatives and schemes to ensure that we support diversity and there is full equality for all,” McConalogue concluded.