Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That is very interesting. There are a lot of very interesting responses out of that. Generally, people would not have thought of that whole concept of the examples. We all remember doing our leaving certificate, and examples that could be in a question that would lead on.

I am quite surprised, based on what Ms Forster said regarding eight- to nine-year-olds, that this shift can be seen at that point, along with the concept of trying to make sure that any examples show that it is open to boys and girls. One of the things I remember from school myself was people with careers coming in, like engineers. I went to an Irish language-speaking school, so it was limited in terms of who could come in, but an engineer came in. It was a man, but he said that engineering was open to women. He was very good on the day.

Ms O'Connor mentioned equity of access to role models, and that is really important in the context of the whole concept of, "If you cannot see it, you cannot be it". I wonder if there is a formalised approach on that, going into primary or, specifically, secondary schools? As somebody who worked in finance, there is the concept of women in finance and banking. I worked in a really good bank, Northern Trust, where a lot of women were in leadership roles, and it encouraged young women coming in to show that they could progress. They had really great buddy systems and leadership initiatives.

It would be good to have a more formalised approach to ensure that women are being seen by those girls who are looking at going into some kind of STEM subject.