Catherine Ardagh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms McKenna and her team for coming here today to give their really insightful presentations. It is super how, with the advent of Covid, we have been able to meet people from all over the world and get their perspectives. That is one positive effect of Covid.

All of the speakers referred to violence against women and the failure of girls to access education, which still goes on. Women in Ireland have always known that in order to protect themselves they have to act in a certain way. Our male colleagues and friends are starting to realise that life is a little different for women. We are having a conversation about that in Ireland now but obviously things are a lot worse for girls living in war-torn countries.

The statistic indicating that 20% of girls did not return to education after Covid is shocking. Disadvantaged communities in Ireland were also adversely affected by education going online, especially communities that did not have access to broadband but I can see how that would be a whole lot worse in developing and war-torn regions. The statistics relating to migrant children are even worse. While we did not get a breakdown in relation to males and females, I imagine the pattern is the same in terms of girls getting left behind.

The kidnapping of Chibok schoolgirls by Boko Haram happened in 2014. Since then, it has largely been forgotten about, although mass kidnappings do occasionally pop up in the media. What could we do, perhaps in the context of our seat on the UN Security Council, to help the situation?