Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Hinds. It was an interesting conversation from a number of different aspects. More women on the council was mentioned. It just crossed my mind that there may be an opportunity within the PEACEPLUS programme, which now facilitates more collaboration between councils, North and South. I think there is room there for a number of positive projects that could be done across the island with the exchange of learning between women on this side and councils and others. One of the deciding factors for me going into representative politics was when I brought a group of women to a Mayo County Council meeting and of the 31 seats, only three were women. It was just the starkness of seeing it. I had come back from London and thought, “My goodness, where are all the women?” These were the people who were making the decisions that were impacting on our lives. That made me decide I had to do something about it, inasmuch as I could. I think there is an opportunity in PEACEPLUS that has not been there before and that is good.

I commend the work of Fidelma Ashe, Joanna McMinn and those women. I met them here a number of months ago. Senator Ó Donnghaile facilitated them to come down here. They presented the work that they were doing on gendering constitutional conversations. There was a real richness and progressiveness in the exchange and what they were presenting. I hope we will have an opportunity in the committee under the work we are doing under the constitutional future to hear more from them. How can we - as a committee and Government, whether it be under the shared island unit or the reconciliation fund or whatever – better support and ensure that those voices are heard? We absolutely need those voices in any discussion around the Constitution. We need to make sure that it is gendered from where we are now.

We need a balance between the voices of urban women and rural women. We have to make sure that rural women are heard in all of the decision-making as well. In many of the groups that I speak to, they say some groups do not have an experience of living in rural communities and the different challenges. There might not be only challenges around transport but also isolation and lack of equality and opportunities and all that. We have hear those voices. Do the guests have any advice on how we can better do that and support it?

I have to ask about the role of further and higher education in reconciliation as well.

Finally, in the Good Friday Agreement, there was provision for the charter of rights, that is, of “establishing a charter, open to signature by all democratic political parties, reflecting and endorsing agreed measures for the protection of the fundamental rights of everyone living in the island of Ireland". That all-island charter of rights was never done. How can we progress that at this stage? It is absolutely a ludicrous situation, if one thinks of it, even on the Border counties. Deputy Brendan Smith is from Border counties and others are as well. There is one set of rights for a group of women or citizens a few miles up the road and another set the other side of it. How can we have an all-Ireland charter of rights?

I thank our guests for their valuable contributions today.