Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for going in and out of the meeting. I was speaking in the Dáil and this is my third committee meeting today. I thank the Chair for allowing me to attend this meeting. I was a member of this committee until very recently but have been moved off it. It is great to have the witnesses in and the conversation was very enlightening. It is not stuff that I do not already know and luckily enough, the national headquarters of Women's Collective Ireland is in my constituency and I can see its head office from my constituency office when I look out from my window and strain my neck to the right. We are also lucky to have the other three grassroots organisations - correct me if I am wrong - in Ronanstown, Liffey Valley, and Lucan in the same constituency as well. Their work does not always get promoted, I am not saying by the witnesses, but by everybody else and I want to recognise the hard work that Women's Collective Ireland does in my area. I have been one of those politicians who have been in the room with the women and if I was not doing my job, I would get a hard time. That is the way I look at it. I have always received a good welcome in there.

When talking about women, I always think about my mother. I said to her that she was a pioneer when it came to women's rights and women being different in terms of pushing themselves forward. My mother went back to work when I was a teenager and I was like, "Mammy is at work. How did this happen?" It was kind of a shock to the system. She reared her kids to a certain age and obviously there were monetary issues as well that a lot of families around my area battle with. She went back to work and it was a really brave thing. I think she was the only mammy in my road who had gone back to work as well. I do give her enough credit because if I did not, she would give out to me. I like to think I have passed that on to my two daughters. They are better than me.

They have me wrapped around their finger. I cannot argue with them any more because they win every argument that we have. I like to think that when they grow older they will be strong, independent women themselves and that they have the same access to everything that their father has. Male privilege needs to be removed from a lot things that we do. I have probably gone on a little rant.

I have a couple of questions. I will start with the Women's Collective Ireland. I was talking to the witnesses from it a while ago about one of its programmes. I think it was the Community Grassroots Weaving All Island Connections project, which takes an all-island approach. They met with a group of women from the Shankill Road. Could the witnesses elaborate on how that went and what the initiative involves? Such conversations are vitally important in the changing Ireland we have at the moment, in particular in the Six Counties where the changing conversation is going on at a dramatic pace. It is vitally important to have the conversation and I am interested in hearing about it.