Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

No, that is totally fine. It has been a very good meeting and it is really interesting. There are a number of points I want to make as well. First, on the family-friendly policies in here, I totally take that we have to encourage more women and it starts at local level. I believe if a person does not break in at local level, it is very difficult. Some people do run for the Dáil or Seanad and get in but you really need to have it at local level. The childcare issue is a big one. That is a great suggestion in terms of what they did in Britain, which was actually paying for childcare. Sometimes people say it would be good to have childcare available at Leinster House. First, it actually is available. I obviously live in Kilkenny and while my kids have gone past the childcare stage and are in the teenage stage now, I would not have brought them up from their school in Kilkenny and who would have dropped them off up here? It is not realistic to state that childcare can be provided on-site as such. That is the same regardless of whether someone is trying to get in first at local level or whether a person is an actual councillor. Such people need to get the financial help because most of the time, people have a system or avenue but the money comes against them. Whether it is a childminder, the local crèche or even if it is family, it is needed in order that a person is able to reimburse them. I hope none of my family are looking at this because they have helped me out for a long number of years.

A really good report was done to try to make the institution here a bit more family-friendly. They have started to implement some of the stuff around it and have tried to match up some of the recesses with school holidays. However, the thing that annoys me the most is where we have gone backwards. In the 2016 to 2020 Dáil term the voting block was at 1 p.m. on Thursdays. It is now at 9 p.m. on Wednesday nights. To me that is the most glaring and obvious thing that could change. According to the report that was published, it is something the Houses of the Oireachtas are looking to change but it has not been done. We obviously have to encourage people to get on the ticket and get elected but it can be difficult in here too. As someone made reference to, one can see the eyes roll that it is the same person who is always the one bringing up these issues that this is not a suitable time for voting. I also do not think it is good to have the votes late at night from a general worker's point of view. How engaged are people if they have been there since 9 a.m. that morning and stuff like that? That is one thing I will highlight and if we can throw a spotlight on it, it is a really obvious thing.

There are a lot of very good suggestions in that report and I sometimes wonder whether there is opposition in certain sectors, similar to what Senator Seery Kearney said, to implementing some of that stuff.