Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

I wish to share time with Deputy Donohoe.

This is my maiden speech and I hope the Chair will indulge me with a few thanks. I wish to thank the people of Laois-Offaly for electing me to represent them. It is an honour and privilege to be here. My husband, Seamus, my children, Evan and Rebecca, my extended family, friends and campaign team and all who contributed so much to my success and that of Fine Gael are all in my thoughts today. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the 31st Dáil across all parties and none in the years to come with energy, enthusiasm and optimism. In this House, we are united with one goal in mind. We want to help make Ireland a better place for our people even if we do not agree on the means to do it.

Ireland faces many challenges, including how to manage our finances, how to get more of our people working, how to ensure equal access to our services for all especially for people with disabilities, the elderly and the vulnerable, how to ensure that our rural economy is supported, how to combat crime and how to maintain a thriving arts sector. There are further needs in Laois-Offaly, for example, how to reduce the numbers of those who die by suicide, how to sustain our manufacturing industries, how to manage our peat lands and forests, how to control our waterways to minimise flooding, how to increase our uptake in third level education and how to deal with unfinished estates. I look forward to finding solutions to these problems in the coming years.

This debate deals with one of the means of finding those solutions, namely, Government and Oireachtas reform. Such reform is needed to strengthen our democracy and I would like to address one key area for reform - increasing women's participation in politics. I have been an advocate for many years for the introduction of quotas to address the remarkable lack of women in the House. We are at the bottom of the EU league table and 84th in the world ranking of women in parliament. I have always believed that we cannot be a true democracy if we fail to take positive action to ensure women can influence debate and become part of our decision-making process.

I very much welcome the announcement by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government that he intends to produce a Bill for Cabinet approval which will see political parties lose half their State funding if they do not put measures in place to run a minimum of 30% women candidates in the next general election, increasing to 40% after seven years. It is a shame we have had to go the legislative route and that this has not happened voluntarily. We, however, cannot avoid the fact that in 2007, 17% of total number of candidates running in the general election were women and that dropped to just 15% this year. In my constituency, I was the only female among 21 candidates.

It is my sincere hope that not only will political parties achieve the 30% minimum of female candidates but will also develop strategies to ensure that female candidates will be selected to contest winnable seats. A female candidate has as good a chance of getting elected as a male candidate if she is a good candidate contesting a winnable seat. There are sincere people who are convinced that we do not need quotas. However, I appeal to them to give quotas a chance to work. It has been proven internationally that quotas work. For example, following the introduction of gender quotas, Sweden now has 46.4% female parliamentarians and South Africa has 44.5% female parliamentarians.

By now it is well established that the long working hours in political life are not family friendly. Those in many other careers face a similar problem. Perhaps we should lead by example in trying to achieve a work-life balance for both male and female Oireachtas Members. As I look around I see many parents of young children who are trying to meet that challenge. We will find solutions to the issue in examining the organisation of the Dáil and its workings. I urge the Government to address this area in the context of the overall reform package in addition to the many positive initiatives already announced.

If we address this issue, in addition to the introduction of gender quotas, it will enable us to ensure equal participation and equal distribution of power in decision making.

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