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NWCI welcomes the new guidelines for appointments to State Boards and the launch of the State Boards Website

Published: Thursday, February 05, 2015

NWCI welcomes today’s launch of the online portal, www.stateboards.ie, as well as the new guidelines, as part of the broad reforms of the process of appointments to State Boards.

Louise Glennon, Women in Leadership Officer at NWCI said,
“We welcome the Government’s commitment to achieving gender balance on State Boards, in particular, the contents of the Revised Guidelines which call on Departments to “prepare a plan to reaffirm and achieve the target of at least 40% for representation of each gender on State Boards within its remit during the lifetime of the present Government.”

Louise Glennon continued,
“The launch of this website, in conjunction with the publication of the revised Guidelines, represents a significant opportunity for women to register their interest in serving on a State Board.  Today the Minister and the Public Appointments Process spoke of the need to broaden the pool of candidates available to boards."
 
Louise Glennon concluded,
“This invitation is encouraging to women, particularly those with a diversity of experience from the community and voluntary sector, from the public service, and from business.  This is an ideal opportunity to improve the gender balance, but also to increase the diversity of voices having their say in how our state organisations are run.  We encourage all women to register with stateboards.ie, to find out what opportunities are available to them, and where they can apply their skills and expertise.”

Notes to the Editor

Managed by the Public Appointments Service, and overseen by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, citizens are being encouraged to register their interest in serving on a State Board, on the site. 

Openness and transparency were named as the key principles underpinning the work of the new website at the launch this morning.   The need to achieve gender balance was also noted, echoing the requirements set out in the Guidelines on Appointments to State Boards, launched in November 2014.

Speaking at the launch this morning Fiona Tierney, CEO of the Public Appointments Service spoke of the Government’s target of 40 per cent gender balance on State Boards and the desire to achieve it.  She encouraged people to register with the site, and to put themselves forward.