Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to substitute for Senator Ruane who would like to be here herself. I am delighted that the committee is having these sessions on the sustainable development goals. It is really important, given the key role Ireland played in their negotiation, that we also give leadership around their implementation. Again, 2030 is coming very quickly.

I want to pick up on a few of the areas the Minister highlighted and look for a little bit more information in respect of them. One was on the review of the equality Acts. That review was announced in 2021 and marked as a priority, but 2030 is around the corner in the context of the sustainable development goals and the end of this Government term is even sooner. In regard to some of these matters, it is a matter of whether we will have progressed them significantly, even within this term. What is the timeline for the review of the equality Acts? Will it be referred before the summer recess? Will it be published without referral so that there is not adequate time to review? Can we expect a heads of Bill in the autumn?

On the non-disclosure agreements, which is an issue Senator Ruane highlighted and on which there is legislation, it was indicated that might be attached to this process. Is it still attached to the process? On one hand, we are talking about how we can do things better in equality legislation, but one of the things we certainly should be trying to expedite is making sure we stop doing bad things, which is non-disclosure agreements. They are a measure that is damaging to equality. I would like the Minister's thoughts on that.

The prohibition of conversion practices legislation is another key issue in terms of LGBT equality. Is there an update on that? It also was for priority drafting.

I welcome that the national strategy on youth work and relation services is being recognised. This area was absolutely gutted during the recession. Community development services were only really looking at employment. Other equality areas such as youth work, empowering people as citizens, as members of their communities, emotional intelligence and all of those other important issues, were neglected, as the Minister outlined. I am glad that the sector is being recognised. Again, I would like the timeline for that. This is a really important repair job because we actually took a real step backwards for a few years.

Will the database on gender pay gap information be accessible to the public? I note with interest the CSO work on mapping inequalities, which is very welcome. The CSO used to have report on men and women in Ireland, which came out annually, then it moved to biannually and then it only happened every three years. I used to hound the office about that. Where will that fit with this new equality system? How regular will the data be?

On early learning and childcare, it is important that we realise, and the Minister mentioned it in his contribution that it is an equality issue and not solely a labour participation issue. In that regard we may have got something wrong. When we think about sustainable development goals, there is much focus on the "leave no one behind" aspect, which is quoted a lot, but an even more important point within this statement is "furthest behind first". Furthest behind first is actually different from just "leave no one behind". In that regard, unfortunately, the most vulnerable families have been a little bit behind in regard to childcare. I note the local area child poverty action plan pilot scheme and I welcome the fact that the family resource centre programme has more funding. However, the local area child poverty action plan scheme is still a pilot. I am concerned. We have seen so many pilots. Is there going to be a clear timeline to take that to scale, because €400,000 is very little? When we think of "furthest behind first" the child poverty action piece is crucial.

All of this tunnels into what should be, regardless of when the election is, the last budget for the Government. There was a focus on bringing in the new well-being indicators. However, gender- and equality-proofing is meant to have been in place for a number of years. How robust will the gender- and equality-proofing be in the budget coming through in the autumn? Ideally, I would have all the Departments checking their proposals again with the Minister and others. However, will he give an indication of his engagement on gender- and equality-proofing?

Lastly, I was disappointed about the referendum in regard to some aspects of what we worked on on the gender equality committee. However, how on track are the many other recommendations the citizens' assembly made on equality that were in the gender equality action plan that we put forward? Is there a timeline for the UNCRPD optional protocol? That is a great many questions.