Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Given the limited time, I will speak to two issues. First, I really welcome the idea, especially at local level, of looking to how we can design either the quotas and any other incentives in a way that look to represent the diversity of women and the diversity of those who are affected by issues at local level. I am noting those points on local political participation. The National Traveller Women's Forum is often called on to input into lots of processes at lots of levels. I wonder if more of an effort needs to be made to have a more active system of seeking the input of Travellers rather than leaving it to Traveller organisations and representative organisations to remind us that we need to have policies that work for everyone in our society and for Travellers and Traveller women. I am thinking of a range of policies. We are not just thinking of policies that are specifically targeted but of general policies - for example, health policy and to check if it works for everyone in our society. Looking to some of the other areas we have looked at, such as care or social protection policies, I wonder to what extent Ms Joyce thinks more needs to be done to resource civil society organisations, such as her organisation, to engage but also to build in the questions in terms of automatically policy-proofing, that is, that there is a more active role for Departments and public bodies and that they seek relevant input into their policies.

I also agree with Ms Joyce on comments that are racist and discriminatory. We used to have a protocol around the commitment to no-hate speech, which parties and candidates used to sign up to. I wonder if Ms Joyce has thoughts on whether that needs to be revived and strengthened.

As I understand it, the 30% Club came about it in the context of when a 40% quota for women on boards was being looked at as an EU directive. I will be honest and say that while I think it is good to have good practice and for everybody to seek to be good examples, if we have that good practice, rather than that being used as an inspiration, that should be pushing more ambition. In regard to an incremental process of some good practice being used as an argument, unfortunately it seems from the opening statement that it is being used as an argument against regulation or against having proper quotas. It stated that we should see how it all goes before we move to quotas and another and it talked about encouraging rather than requiring. We have waited a very long time to have any progress in this area, or even a demand for progress.

The 30% Club in the UK at least - I do not know about Ireland - came into being when a quite strong 40% legislative measure was being discussed. I hope to be reassured on leading the way in terms of good practice and peer support around good practice. That should be encouraging of having good practices and making the case for why it is a good thing to have good practices. That can be done while encouraging those harder regulatory measures and perhaps building a greater constituency of support for new and better laws. Could the witnesses comment on that?