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Gender, Diversity and Inclusion

Gender Pay Gap Report | Gender Equality Plan | Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty

Diversity and Inclusion

To remain relevant, Teagasc must continuously reflect the diversity of society and of our stakeholders at every level in our organisation. We will continue to welcome a diverse range of staff at all levels. The organisation is working to ensure that diversity is manifested across management structures in all Directorates to guarantee that as wide a variety of views as possible are brought forward and taken into account in decision-making.

Diversity and Inclusion Strategy

Teagasc launched its Diversity & Inclusion Strategy (pdf) in July 2020. The Strategy outlines the vision, strategic objectives and action plan for achieving a more diverse and inclusive work environment. Many actions, working groups, events and new policies have been developed since the launch of our Strategy.  In January 2022, Teagasc carried out a diversity and inclusion culture audit, and based on the findings we have been implementing a number of positive improvement actions.

Diversity and Inclusion Principles in Teagasc

  1. Ensure all staff are part of the Diversity and Inclusion Strategy in Teagasc and reinforce words with solid actions for the common good of all in the organisation.
  2. Maintain a work environment that respects all individuals and promotes real inclusion at every opportunity throughout the organisation.
  3. Reinforce a just and honest culture with the Teagasc Authority and Senior Management Group setting the example, where staff members are treated fairly, promoting trust and drawing the line between acceptable and unacceptable behaviours.

While this Strategy has an internal focus on staff, Teagasc as stated in its Code of Conduct and Statement of Strategy, will review and develop new policies and good practices to avoid discrimination and provide equal opportunity for the general public and the clients it serves. Relevant actions will also be incorporated into a plan to meet our obligations under the Irish Human Rights and Equality Act 2014

Gender Pay Gap Report 2025

Gender Pay Gap Report 2025 (PDF)

Teagasc are delighted to present our gender pay gap report for 2025. It is great to see that our pay gap has reduced by 2% to 12%. Teagasc continue to recruit many women into professional roles and see them advance their careers through our staff development structures. Our female staff continue to take student accolades from our Leadership Development programmes, are amongst the highest cited researchers, and are leading many national and international consortium collaborations.

As gender equality is a major focus within our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policy, Teagasc continued to run our annual series of events in 2025, including on International Women’s Day where we focused on accelerating action. We continue to leverage International Men’s day as a platform to promote mental health and the importance of maintaining a healthy work life balance. We are particularly proud of the publication of our new Hormonal Health policy. Our new policy was launched alongside running an all-staff training webinar about Hormonal Health awareness, where over 200 staff participated. Our initiative in this area got picked up by our colleagues in the Irish Farmers Journal where they featured Teagasc’s Diversity and Inclusion Specialist.

It was positive to see that the results of our all-staff diversity and inclusion survey showed similar satisfaction levels amongst men and women. However, we do plan to include focused gender equality actions in our new DE&I strategy.

Getting our gender pay gap into single digits over the next couple of years remains our ambition and this will be a clear marker in our new DE&I and People Strategies. Our new Statement of Strategy highlights the important role women have to play in leading agriculture, which is the reason we have committed to increasing our role in driving initiatives to ensure that women are empowered as farm workers, managers and leaders in our sector.

Previous Gender Pay Gap Reports

Gender Equality Plan

Teasgasc launched its Gender Equality Plan in Kildalton College at an event celebrating International Women’s Day in March 2022.

In developing the Gender Equality Plan (GEP), workshops were held for staff at all levels across the organisation, including middle and senior management.  The GEP reflects important actions identified by staff to further gender equality in Teagasc and contains four strategic objectives, as follows:

  1. Creating a Gender Diverse Culture
  2. Reshaping Decision-Making and Governance
  3. Developing Equal Career Support Measures
  4. Integrating Gender in Research Funding and Teaching

The GEP was developed by Teagasc through its involvement and collaboration with other European research partners under the GenderSMART project, a €2.9million EU Horizon 2020 funded project which commenced on 1st January 2019 and concluded on 31st December 2022. Further information on the project is available here.

Teagasc Gender Equality Plan 2021 (pdf)

Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty

Teagasc published its Report on the Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty (pdf) in 2022. The Plan includes a number of actions that will be delivered from 2021-2023 in order to meet our public sector duty construed by the public sector equality and human rights legislation.