Ms Niamh Allen:

I will address a couple of those points before asking Ms Loftus to come in. With regard to the approach of the National Women's Council of Ireland to these issues, I know the Deputy probably referred to the introduction of the affordable child care scheme last year and the disappointment in us being so welcoming of that piece while people working in the home did not get the same recognition. I can understand that. The National Women's Council of Ireland represents women in all their diversity and it always has. It has a very long track record of advocating for women in unpaid caring roles. We continue to do that. We welcomed the affordable child care scheme last year as it is another piece of the jigsaw for which we have been advocating for a very long time. We have done it for a number of decades and it was very encouraging to see progress being made on that front. We absolutely recognise the value of women working in the home and in caring roles. I just wanted to state for the record that it is an incredibly important piece of work for the National Women's Council of Ireland and we will continue to do it in future.