A brief round-up of today's other Ardfheis stories
• Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea is to publish commissioned research on why women are not joining the Defence Forces and to announce proposals to encourage further recruitment.
He said women believed there was bullying in the Defence Forces and that "it's a man's world - that's the perception but not the reality".
Women account for just 5 per cent of the permanent defence forces, but 25 per cent of the reserve. The height requirement had been reduced from 1.62m (5ft 4ins), which had "excluded half the female population" to 1.57m (5ft 2ins) and this had "doubled the potential pool of female applicants".
The Minister said proposals he would announce shortly would "rapidly improve the disproportion between men and women in the Army".
• A new "Innovation Voucher Scheme" will be launched this week which will allow small firms €5,000 worth of research and development at an Irish third level institution.
Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin said it was a priority to ensure that "our firms have the best research and development". The scheme will be run by Enterprise Ireland and "a number of firms can pool their vouchers to maximise value". Mr Martin said that "every small firm in the country should apply" before the April 30th deadline.
He told the ardfheis that about one in 11 people working in small and medium enterprises are involved in entrepreneurial activity and the Government planned to "dramatically increase" that figure.
The Minister said he wanted it to rise so that up to half would be involved in entrepreneurial activity, over the lifetime of the next government. Some 800,000 people work in small and medium enterprises.
• Free travel for older people across the entire island comes into effect on April 2nd, according to Minister for Social and Family Affairs Séamus Brennan. "A new seamless all-Ireland free travel scheme is in place."
It had been a complex and lengthy process but now some "600,000 older people will be able to travel free wherever and whenever they want in the 32 counties", he said.
This year, he said, €60 million would be spent so that 35,000 qualified adults, married women who had remained at home, would be given "pension entitlements in their own right and no longer as dependents".
