From Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Published on
Last updated on
On International Women’s Day (March 8th) the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue TD, has said that amongst his Department’s core values is “A strong commitment to diversity, inclusion and the fair and equal treatment of all."
Minister McConalogue said:
“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.
“I am committed to promoting and maintaining an inclusive and diverse workplace for all of our employees and the Diversity, Equality and Inclusion policy launched in 2018 reinforces our core values in these areas. 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.”
Senator Pippa Hackett, Minister of State for Biodiversity and Land Use, said
“Our Department monitors its gender pay gap and has seen a narrowing of this pay gap from 20.5% in 2013 to 13.2% in 2020. We expect to report a further improvement in our figures for 2021. 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.”
Minister of State Martin Heydon TD, who is responsible for Research and Development said:
“This Department and its agencies regularly encourage their staff to participate in Women in Agriculture and Women in STEM events. We have seen a significant increase in the last 12 months in the number of female-led research projects funded by my Department, and I am confident that this welcome trend will continue.”
In conclusion, Minister McConalogue said:
“Our comprehensive agri-food strategy, Food Vision 2030, recognises the importance of gender balance to the long-term sustainable future for primary producers and includes actions to promote and improve gender balance at all levels, including at senior management and board level. It also includes a commitment to hold a National Dialogue on Women in Agriculture.
“Finally, I am proud to have put forward the following package of measures on gender equality in the CAP
Strategic Plan were proposed by Ireland:
• Increased rate of grant aid to 60% for women aged 41-66 years under TAMS Investments
• Knowledge Transfer Programme - Women only KT Groups
• European Innovation Partnerships – 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.
“All CAP interventions will be developed with a gender aware perspective to ensure there are no inherent barriers to women’s participation. 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.”
Note for Editors:
• The National CAP Network established in the CAP Strategic Plan will be leveraged to increase the involvement of all women in the implementation of CAP. This will include events and support for women and a women’s sub-committee to lead such activities
• The ACORNS programme is funded under the Rural Innovation and Development Fund through my Department. Its objective is to encourage a stronger level of enterprise development in rural areas by seeking out and assisting start-up female entrepreneurs living in rural areas to grow and develop their businesses.
• The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is a core member of the Agri-food Diversity and Inclusion Forum (AgDif), led by Bord Bia and Aon, in partnership with the 30% Club. Since 2017, the Agri-Food Diversity & Inclusion Forum has been a collaborative initiative with the Irish Agri-food industry, aiming to position our food and drink sector as the industry of choice for the best talent.