Grace Boland (Dublin Fingal West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

That would be helpful for seeing what has been done elsewhere and the impact of that as well. I am a director of a charity called Teen-Turn which empowers girls from underserved areas into STEM careers. In so many of our girls' schools there still is not access to full science subjects and it is generally girls from underserved areas who are disproportionately impacted. We are relying on charities to try to help them fulfil amazing careers, so I am really interested in what we could do in that space.

On the extension of time for taking litigation or taking complaints or cases to the WRC, I really welcome the fact we are moving from six months to 12 months, because the six months was penal, especially in certain instances like pregnancy and maternity leave. However, if we look around Europe, two or three years is the standard and I do not really understand why we were at six months and are now at only at 12 months unless we are looking at our UK comparators. I do not know what any of our witnesses would feel about it extending a bit further than what we now have as 12 and 18 months. It is welcome but I would like to see it widened. Would the witnesses all be in agreement? They would. Great. We just need to get the Minister on board now.