John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

Ireland has undergone fundamental cultural change in recent years and especially in the years of the Celtic tiger. Members, perhaps with the exception of Deputy English, will remember a time when mothers stayed at home and fathers came home at midday for their dinner. I use the word "dinner" because that is what the meal was called; it was not called "lunch". I am always corrected by my children when I refer to that meal as "dinner".

That society was probably the leftovers from de Valera's vision of Ireland, in which the right of the mother to stay at home was enshrined in the Constitution. However, the other side of that was discrimination against the mother who wished to remain in work. We have heard many tales of women in the Civil Service and in the teaching profession who, on getting married, were told that their careers were over.

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