Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is very powerful. I went through all the WCI projects on its website. They are very powerful projects. I am involved in the Fine Gael Women's Network. As part of that, there is a mentoring programme to tackle that confidence piece. People in media training say that the lads will rock up and do not feel the need to prepare, while women do a huge amount of background work and prepare for maybe a couple of hours for a 15-minute gig, as the Cathaoirleach said. They put in the work because of impostor syndrome. It was incredible for me. I am a swan; it looks all cool on top but underneath I am paddling away. It is about actually acknowledging that. We had a fantastic morning where we looked at that confidence and wellbeing piece with a number of women who will be candidates next year, and in the general election, whenever that is. It is about saying that you never get to a place of having it all learned off and it will be fine. You are always pushing uphill and you just have to feel the fear and do it anyway, to be clichéd about it. It was very good to acknowledge that.

One of the struggles we and a couple of my colleagues have had related to talking about the abuse piece. At the beginning, we were afraid it would be counterintuitive. If we talked about it, it may amplify or encourage it, yet my argument has been that we should talk about it, call it out, say it is not acceptable and that we are not accepting it. We have a rule in our office, if people cross the threshold of a lack of respect, to say we are sorry and discontinue the call or whatever. If I appear on television, I will get critique about what I wore or what my hair was like. Everything about me will come in through emails that same night. That is not acceptable. Some day, I will not be in national office and I will get an opportunity to reply to those emails and the things-----