Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 19 September 2024
Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement
Women and Constitutional Change: Discussion (Resumed)
9:30 am
Ms Ailbhe Smyth:
It is hugely strengthening of our democracy.
We have really good programmes. I have mentioned some that already exist and so has Ms DeSouza and the Deputy. They are there and yet they are consistently underfunded. Ms DeSouza is right about them being typically underfunded. As I said at the beginning, they tend to be funded for a year or two years and then that is it - end of story - and so much of all of that good work just goes out the window. We need five-year cycles on all of these programmes and it is true of the funding piece that we need three-year funding. I have been saying for the past 40 to 50 years that we need five-year funding. That is an educational cycle.
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