Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

That is a creative proposal Senator Higgins made that would feed into the spirit of the citizens' assembly recommendations, even if there is not one specifically on that. We have seen today the real engagement, interest and commitment the members of this committee have towards seeing the implementation of the citizens' assembly recommendations, particularly those on care and social protection that we have addressed today. I thank the witnesses for their extensive expertise and knowledge and their knowledgeable and clear answers to our detailed questions. There are a number of matters they have indicated they might follow up on, notably on the data on the gendered analysis and the gender breakdown around pensions. There are recommendations in the citizens' assembly report about getting better gendered analysis of data. That is entirely in keeping with that recommendation. We may come back to the witnesses on those points. I thank both the witnesses very much, Mr. Rónán Hession and Mr. Ciarán Lawler from the Department of Social Protection, for their very extensive briefing with us today on the recommendations relating to care and protection.

As Deputy Clarke stated, this concludes the last public meeting of the Committee on Gender Equality. This is our last public hearing. We have had a very tight timeframe to conduct public hearings on the detailed recommendations of the citizens' assembly. I thank all the stakeholders and witnesses who have taken the time over the past nine months to appear before us. I thank also all those who have followed the work of the committee and who have engaged with us in person or via written submission. I thank also those who engage with us online and follow our hearings online. We appreciate that, especially the continued interest and engagement of the members of the citizens' assembly who tune in every week and who are in contact with us about our work. We will continue to meet in private session over the coming weeks to finalise our report, which we hope to launch on Thursday, 1 December 2022. We will take into account all of the submissions, representations and evidence that was before us over the course of our public hearings. I thank my colleagues for their courteous and committed engagement over the course of our public hearings.