The Government is falling far short of its commitment to appoint women to State bodies, according to a survey of Government departments.
The figures show that despite the Government's commitment to a 40 per cent quota when it took office four years ago, a number of ministers are not meeting it when making appointments to semi-State and private boards.
The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, the Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ms Harney, and the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, have failed to reach the target in any of the boards under their aegis since 1997.
Mr McCreevy appointed 10 women out of 81 appointments to bodies including the Central Bank and the Revenue Commissioners.
Ms Harney appointed 32 women to State boards under her control, from a total of 129 appointments.
Of 115 appointments by Ms O'Rourke, 15 were women. Twenty-four of these board appointments were worker directors.
The Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, appointed 18 women out of 169 appointments.
Others, such as the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera, and the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, fared better, achieving gender balance in 78 per cent and 50 per cent of State boards respectively.
The Department with the best record was Foreign Affairs, where all six boards under its aegis were well above the quota, with 105 women out of 192 appointments.
The Fine Gael spokeswoman on equality, opportunity and family affairs, Ms Frances Fitzgerald, who tabled Dail questions to each Minister, said a "startling number" of them were ignoring the 40 per cent quota recommended by the Second Commission on the Status of Women.
"The Government must clarify if it has abandoned the 40 per cent recommendation accepted after the commission. Since State boards are acting on behalf of Irish citizens it is particularly important that the manner of their selection reflects Government commitment to equality and inclusion," said Ms Fitzgerald.
The Taoiseach, she said, revealed recently that 28 per cent of the membership of State boards were women. Of the ministerial nominees 34 per cent were women.
She said Departments such as Foreign Affairs which performed so well had skewed the overall picture when compared to poorly performing Departments. "There are huge variations. What proposals will the Taoiseach bring to Cabinet to do something about this situation?" she asked.
Ms Fitzgerald said a register of all boards, bodies, task forces and other agencies which are sponsored by the State and responsible for managing large aspects of public policy, programmes and service delivery should be established.
She said the process should be laid down in law or procedure, with new annual reporting structures and a formal system of appraisal or accountability in relation to those appointed.