The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the EU Social Affairs Commissioner, Mr Padraig Flynn, will be among the speakers at a special conference today to mark the 20th anniversary of the Employment Equality Agency. Yesterday the chairwoman of the agency, Ms Kate Hayes, said that equality legislation had been one of the "keys to progress" in modern Ireland. "Women are now equipped with a broader range of skills and currently constitute more than half of all law, medicine and business studies undergraduates," she said.
However there were still "a depressingly small number of women qualifying for skilled, technical jobs in the growth sectors", she added.
The director general of IBEC, Mr John Dunne, and the general secretary of the ICTU, Mr Peter Cassells, will address the conference, which is being held in the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham.