Northern Ireland

Gender equality targets 'impossible' without executive says public appointments watchdog

Commissioner for public appointments Judena Leslie
Commissioner for public appointments Judena Leslie Commissioner for public appointments Judena Leslie

GENDER equality targets for boards of public bodies have been made "impossible to attain" because of the lack of a Stormont executive, the public appointments commissioner has said.

Judena Leslie said efforts to improve diversity have stalled as new members cannot be recruited without ministers in place.

Only one in five chairperson posts on public bodies in the north are held by women.

Public bodies run government services in a broad range of areas, from health and education to policing and justice.

On International Women's Day last year, the Stormont executive announced targets for gender equality and improving diversity in public appointments.

They included aiming to achieve equal representation of men and women for chair and member posts by 2021.

But Ms Leslie – whose office regulates around 760 appointments to about 90 public bodies – has warned the targets cannot be met because of the executive's collapse.

She told The Irish News: "The focus and energy created by the announcements and the setting of the new targets was cause for optimism.

"Unfortunately with the fall of the NI Executive in January 2017 this optimism has evaporated."

Ms Leslie said that without ministers to make new appointments, Stormont departments have had to resort to making an "unprecedented" number of extensions to the tenures of board members and chairs.

During the financial year 2016/17 there were 66 extensions of tenure.

However, in the first five months of 2017/18 her office has already been notified of 96 extensions.

Board positions may also remain unfilled if members choose to leave rather than accepting an extension.

Just two public appointment competitions have been held since April, compared to 10 by this time last year.

"This situation makes the achievement of the equality targets within the set timeframe impossible to attain," Ms Leslie said.

"The moral, social and business arguments for reform are overwhelming but without ministers to make new public appointments the reform agenda has stalled."

As of March 2015, just 38 per cent of all public appointments were women, and 22 per cent of chairs were women.

SDLP assembly members John Dallat and Pat Catney, who met the commissioner last week, expressed concern over the backlog.

Mr Dallat said: "The reform of public appointments to bodies running a whole range of government services, including health, is critical to improving the performance of those services.

"With no ministers and no executive, the role of many of these agencies has become more important over the last number of months."

Mr Catney said: "We want to see significant improvements in gender balance, community background and the entire equality profile of public appointments.

"Too many people are still holding multiple appointments and targets set for more representative appointments have been missed.

"The backlog in public appointments must be addressed urgently and reform must be a political priority."