Ivana Bacik (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome all our witnesses and wish everyone a happy International Women's Day. I know we all welcome the opportunity to have a public hearing from such a great array of witnesses. It is nice for us this week to have all the witnesses before us be women. Most of us in the Chamber are women and this committee has a majority of women members but as others have said, unfortunately, that is not the norm across the Oireachtas and the Dáil still has a very low number of women Deputies, 36 Deputies which is 22.5%. The Seanad is much better with 40%, or 24 out 60, which is a huge improvement but a long way to go. Ireland still languishes at 101st place in world rankings of women in parliaments. The message for International Women's Day and this week, "nothing about us without us", is very important for women and, as all the witnesses have said so eloquently, also for women with disabilities or disabled women. We are very grateful to everyone for coming in and for speaking with us today and sharing such an array of experiences, and providing us with such insights into their own lived experiences and many of those they represent.

As someone who was involved in pro-choice campaigns for a long time, it was brilliant for the repeal the eighth campaign in 2018 to have so many important voices of women with disabilities or disabled women coming to the fore on the pro-repeal side. It was most interesting to hear their thoughts on the reproductive justice side.

My questions are on two other issues. Do any of the witnesses have a view they wish to share with the committee on the institutionalisation of women with disabilities? Some of the speakers have touched on how Ireland has had a shameful history of incarceration, of populations who are "disruptive" or seen-as disruptive to the State. We have seen that history with mother and baby homes, Magdalen institutions and so on. However, I am very conscious that there are complex issues around women's choices. Last year, I worked closely with some residents in the Sisters of Charity-run home, St. Mary's home in Telford in St. Vincent's, Dublin 4. Many here will be aware of the situation, which was very public, where the Sisters of Charity were closing the home to the great distress of many of those women within it who had known no other home.

The complexity of institutionalisation, which means it is not always experienced negatively by those who are institutionalised, is an issue on which I would like the witnesses to comment.

Finally, I have a question on the new Government policy and the great expansion of the disability remit in its move into the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. What is the witnesses' view on that? Do they see it as a positive development and how will it impact on their lives and the lives of the women they represent?