Failure to increase the representation of women on State boards within the coming year could lead to the introduction of a law to help secure the 40 per cent minimum target set almost a decade ago.
The Minister of State for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr Willie O'Dea, said he would consider proposing legislation if strict new voluntary measures to boost female representation on State boards did not succeed.
Mr O'Dea has sent memos to all ministers asking them to review the gender balance of State boards which come under the aegis of their departments.
They will have to report every six months to the Cabinet on the gender make-up of the boards under the new procedures introduced by Mr O'Dea.
He will also require bodies entitled to nominate people to State boards to put forward the name of both a man and a woman in cases where there is only one vacancy.
Mr O'Dea said this measure is based on a Danish model introduced last year which led to a "pretty major improvement" in gender balance on such boards.
He said: "It would be possible for us to legislate along those lines and I've said in my letter to ministers that I would have to consider doing so if the voluntary system isn't working."
Mr O'Dea said he would give the voluntary system a year.
"By that time two reports will have gone to Cabinet and we will be able to see how much progress is being made . . . We are trying to put in place as much moral pressure as possible to get a focus on the issue." If legislation was required, it would be likely to give ministers the right to reject nominations to State boards if the appropriate gender balance was not achieved, he added.
In 1993, the Government set as a minimum target that 40 per cent of nominees to State boards should be women. This target is repeated in the latest Programme for government.
According to recent Government figures, women account for an average of 29 per cent of members of all State boards and hold 15 per cent of chairman posts.
On boards which come under the Minister's own department, 32 per cent of members and 29 per cent of chairs are women.
Boards which come under the Department of Finance have the lowest rate of female membership, at 6 per cent.
Foreign Affairs and Social, Community and Family Affairs are the only departments which exceed the 40 per cent quota among members.
The Department of the Taoiseach is the only one in which women make up 40 per cent of board chairs.