Ms Nora Owen:

I thank the members of the committee, both Deputies and Senators, for their extreme interest in our work and for the range of questions and comments they have raised with us. We are on top of some, and others are not quite on our agenda lest the committee thinks I was ignoring any of the questions that came up. In Ireland, gender equality is a core and fundamental value for us. Therefore, in our working group we try to get that message across all the areas of policy on which we work. We assist countries, as Dr. Kilroy has said, to make necessary changes in their own activities, policies, and in how they deal with their people in various ways. As Ms Hearns said, a woman sitting at a peace-making table has to have the skills and capacities to be heard and to make her point on behalf of both the men and women of her community and society.

Again, Ireland’s role in providing funding for education is crucial. We are really worried about the effect Covid-19 has had on what was quite an advancement in the education of particularly girl children and, more important, keeping girl children in school. For a long time, and all the time that I was working in development aid areas, girls were getting to school but were leaving at 12 and 13 years old. They did not continue their education. In more recent years, that was beginning to change. Girls were going on to do their final exams to become qualified members of their societies. Covid-19 has thrown that into disarray, as have some of the conflict areas.

We are honoured that the committee invited us to speak to it about the range of our work. I hope that over the coming years members will have learned something and will be ready in any Dáil debate to raise the issue of gender and the role of women in our society, and make sure that you can put it across all the Departments. This term “whole of government” has become an issue for all of us. That is why, as Ms Hearns said, we do not want a specific budget just for us. We would be afraid that if they ran short of money somewhere else, they might poach our budget. We constantly ask all Departments in our meetings to tell us what progress they have made.

I particularly thank our members who participated today: Mr. Egide Dhala, Dr. Walt Kilroy, Ms Deirdre Ní Néill – who was there behind us all the time ready to come in if she was needed - Mr. Shane O’Connor, in the same Department, Chief Superintendent Louise Synnott, Ms Áine Hearns and other members of our team who have helped us prepare. I hope members have learned more than they knew before they came into the committee. The committee has helped us by raising the issues that it has.