Ms Tara Farrell:

I thank Dr. Soares. I would like to thank the Chairman and the committee for the invitation. Longford Women’s Link is a social enterprise founded in 1995 which provides services to approximately 900 women and 130 children in Longford annually. These services include education, entrepreneurship, community employment and a domestic violence service, which we deliver using our unique model of integrated service delivery. We also engage in widespread regional and national advocacy. Our CEO is on the board of the National Women's Council of Ireland, while I am on the board of Irish Rural Link, and I am the current chairperson of AONTAS, the national adult learning organisation. I am also on the steering group of The Next Chapter, which is an Irish Rural Link, Politics Plus and Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action, NICVA, initiative based in Stormont.

One of our flagship programmes is the Women's Manifesto programme, which is a unique model of local democratic participation that aims to support women in rural Ireland to play an active and meaningful role in their local decision-making structures. Just last week, we launched the She project with the 50:50 North West group, supported by the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. This aims to change the face of local government in rural Ireland by supporting women to play an active role in public life. The Women’s Manifesto project was supported by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust from 2012 until the cessation of the trust’s funding in the Republic of Ireland in 2016. Longford Women’s Link and the Women’s Manifesto programme have been active members of the Towards a New Common Chapter initiative since 2015 and see it as a key all-island programme of sustained engagement as we move beyond the Brexit referendum. We believe that working at grassroots level, as this programme most definitely does, is absolutely critical if we are to see meaningful co-operation and community development alongside an empowered civic society across these islands. We have seen with Brexit what happens when civil society is largely excluded from central discussions, and we believe that the voices of grassroots women, especially in rural areas, not only need to be heard but are essential in building inclusive and resilient communities. We believe there is significant potential within the New Common Charter to do this.

If we are to have an effective democratic society that embodies the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement with active, engaged citizens and communities, then first we need support for the New Common Charter and second, support for civil society organisations. This means financial support, but we believe it is an investment not only in our communities, but in the future of these islands.