Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would make two points. On the constitutional point, I accept the general view that it cannot be simple deletion and that part of the amendment should involve care.

The devil is in the detail and the balance between the constitutional, the Executive and the Parliament and what functions fall to Parliament and to the Executive to develop and implement. I recall being involved in the Disability Acts in the 2000s and the EPSEN Acts as a Minister for Health. I would have been an advocate on the rights side of it. In terms of what constituted even a disability, for example, healthcare people said it could go to the hip or it could go to what we might consider normal health stuff. If we put something into the Constitution, all sorts of interpretations can flow and there can be unintended consequences. That is why the work the committee is doing is important in terms of how it is defined. Policy issues should be for the Executive and the Oireachtas. There has to be a written constitutional framework to govern people's basic rights. It will be challenging to get a formula of words that embraces care but I think it is possible. The committee has already done good work on that in its interim report.

On politics and the electoral issue, as a party leader I would be very close to this having overseen two local elections and two general elections. Gender quotas were useful and effective in national elections because at national level each party will look at a five, four or three seat constituency and will say it has the prospect of two here or one here and winning the seat becomes a dominant issue and a primary consideration. What that means is one could restrict candidates and one might run one or two candidates. It becomes very difficult and challenging. However, it worked because we were able to say to the national executive and to the party at large that we wanted to get 30% and we will do it come what may. That meant adding women who may not have gotten through local conventions.

It is totally different at local elections if I am honest. I do not think the quota is as critical at local elections. There are more fundamental issues. We need to look more broadly at other barriers to entry into politics, particularly for women but for men also. We set up the Markievicz commission and brought academics in to chair it and they went through the literature and the four Cs, namely, cash, confidence, childcare and culture. I have said to the chambers of commerce over the last number of years and when I met them as an opposition leader. I do not think the whole of society is focused on politics. What do I mean by that? If somebody working in an industry - it could be pharmaceutical or financial services - put their hand up and said they wanted to be a candidate and to go forward for the city or county council, how would the employer look at that? Is it a career limiting move? I suspect it is. Most party leaders and most HQ organisers will say the panel from which you choose candidates is narrowing all the time. Once most people get out of secondary school or college, they go to work and not all can come out of that work world, so to speak, and go into politics. That is a cultural thing we need to turn around. That is my sense of it. I meet many young people in the youth wings of political parties. They are all enthusiastic and turn up to conferences and everything else. They graduate, get the qualification and go to work in some firm. I get the sense it is a career limiting move if they say that they want to become a councillor.

There are other issues. I outlined some of the moves we have made on maternity leave and all of that. The salary improvements will help. That gives people an option in some instances to opt in full time and to remain at home. That salary issue is important, and could perhaps be enhanced in the future at local government level. The timing of meetings and basic things like that are also important. When I started in local government, we met at 7.30 p.m., which everybody could make. It was brought forward to 5.30 p.m., which I could still make because I was a teacher. The committee meetings were in the afternoon, which not everybody could make. We have to be more flexible around that. There are lots of issues that are deterring people from going into local politics and we probably need to take a fresher look at it. I would support any measures we could bring in that would make the choice easier for people. I find that sometimes one is persuading someone that it will not be as bad as they think it is.