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board meeting via Shutterstock

One in five company directors is a woman (and she's most likely to be called Mary)

Figures show that number of female directors has increased by 14 per cent since the start of the recession – but over half of all Irish PLCs have no women sitting on their boards.

FIGURES THAT SHOW that more women are taking up company directorships since the start of the recession have been described as “encouraging”.

Analysis of company records from Vision-net show that there are now 104, 971 women in director roles in Irish companies. There were 92,281 in those roles in 2008 – and just 48,571 in 2003. That constitutes a hike of 14 per cent in the number of women in director roles since the economic crash. As there are 494,571 directors in Ireland in total, one in five are now women.

Most of the female directors are in their 40s and 50s – only 4 per cent are in their 20s – and are more likely to operate in the professional, social and personal services, as well as in the construction sector.

In an aside, the most common first name for a female director in Ireland is Mary, followed by Margaret, Anne and Catherine.

However, it also emerged yesterday that only 8 per cent of board members in Irish public limited companies are women. Over half of all PLCs (57 per cent) have no women on their board at all. These figures, compiled by research firm Accreate ahead of today’s International Women’s Day, found that Ireland is “lagging behind” our nearest neighbours, the UK, where 17.3 per cent of all PLC board members are women. In Norway, the figure is 35.9 per cent representation.

There had been some good news for businesses in the end of February figures released from company records, which showed that the number of businesses collapsing had slowed down considerably over 12 months. Although 140 businesses had dropped the shutters between 1 and 25 February, this was a 32 per cent decrease on the same period in 2012. Most of the insolvencies had been in Dublin (44 per cent) and Cork and Kildare had 10 per cent and 8 per cent of the cases respectively.

On the other side of the coin, 3,418 new companies started up in February – that was up 7 per cent on the same period last year.  Something to note though: of these, 2,277 were simply registered business names and 1,141 were the incorporation of new companies.

There was less satisfying news, however, in the hospitality and construction sectors – over 66  per cent of businesses in hospitality, and 58 per cent of those in construction, were deemed ‘high risk’.

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    Mute Michael Campbell
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    Sep 15th 2011, 5:21 PM

    What a horrible lot don’t blame the USA for trying to keep them out

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    Mute Des Fortune
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    Sep 15th 2011, 5:38 PM

    Michael, drug cartels are so powerful because of US drug use, US war on drugs is a joke, calling Mexicans ‘a horrible lot’ is rather simplistic view

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    Mute Dave Bruce
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    Sep 17th 2011, 9:34 AM

    Micheal two young mexicans are dead because of the illegal drugs industry, because they may have used their rights to freedom of speech (a right upheld in the constitutions of many countries) to speak out against drug cartels. Are they part of the horrible lot too?The drugs industry is an international one it doesn’t follow borders, it just follows supply and demand.

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    Mute Brian Carroll
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    Sep 15th 2011, 6:19 PM

    Michael, try educating yourself before you make idiotic comments in future.

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    Mute Unitedpeople Ireland
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    Sep 15th 2011, 5:53 PM

    Dear drug cartels,
    You can’t stop the signal!
    Sooner you learn that, the better!

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    Mute Michelle Geraghty
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    Sep 15th 2011, 10:12 PM

    I’ve been meeting so many people facing these kinds of threats every day at the Frontline Human Rights Defenders Platform in Dublin Castle this week. 130 incredibly brave people from 85 countries being threatened for standing up for their basic rights. Its shocking to hear stories like this one. Can you imagine actually facing that fear every day but continuing to fight for the right thing despite it? And what if you had kids? Massive respect to the journalists who fight back. Rant over. If you guys interested in reading more about them, visit http://www.frontlinehumanrights.org

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    Mute Adam Magari
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    Sep 15th 2011, 9:12 PM

    Mexico, a failed state now. Imagine the situation in ten years time.

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    Mute Eagle eye
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    Sep 15th 2011, 8:10 PM

    There was a great show on last week where that sas guy chris Ryan teamed up with the special police there ‘bope’. Incredible stuff seeing the conditions in the favelas. The place is overrun with drugs and crime. Remember last year when hundreds of cops raided the place and arrested hundreds?
    Scary stuff if they are turning to killing those using social media and reporters

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    Mute Mad Durdu
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    Sep 15th 2011, 8:40 PM

    Thats brazil you clown. And BOPE are a bunch of murderers and torturers

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    Mute Eagle eye
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    Sep 15th 2011, 11:31 PM

    My bad mad durdu. I made a mistake.
    I ain’t a clown though. I wouldn’t say murderers, they are going in dealing with serious criminals and drug cartels.

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    Mute grass Eye
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    Sep 15th 2011, 8:29 PM

    This was a mad story. On Monday.

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    Mute Gavin Hoey
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    Sep 15th 2011, 8:35 PM

    : )

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