Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

Before the debate adjourned last night, I indicated that I hated quotas. In 2011, the chief executive of Deutsche Bank stated that appointing women to the bank's executive board, which did not have any women, would make it "prettier and more colourful". His comment made me laugh as I am partial to a bit of colour but I was also reminded of the following great words of encouragement I once received, "Toughness does not have to come in a pinstripe suit."

Gender bias is one of the oldest forms of discrimination. Within living memory, our mothers - not our fathers - were forced out of the Civil Service when they married. Equality laws were introduced in large part because we joined the European Union. Nobody died and there were no riots in the streets when they were implemented. Instead, a steady stream of women made its way into third level education and professions such as medicine and business. In medicine, for example, where once a female student was the isolated exception, female students now outnumber their male counterparts. Slowly but surely women are making their way into the top ranks; for instance, we now have a woman consultant as master of a national maternity hospital. Better still, girls in secondary school do not have any sense that anything is shut off to them. They are right not to care about the feminist fights of the past. Women in earlier generations fought to hand today's young women the opportunities they take for granted and the point is they should take them for granted because women are human beings and equal citizens, full stop.

One of the hold-out areas is the political arena. Let me make clear that when I argue in favour of having quotas to ensure a certain number of women make it onto the ticket in each constituency, I am not arguing that the current absence of women on these tickets is due to prejudice. It is inertia rather than active prejudice that is the largest speed bump on the road towards women's progress. Prejudice is up front and takes many forms, from lads sniggering together over a woman's dress sense to the failure to appoint women to private boards. It can be challenged, however, and I have done so. Last week, Professor Brian Lucey challenged prejudice in appointments to the boards of private companies when he stated that women make decisions about high risk investments that follow a different process to the one adopted by men. He did not argue that the process was better or worse, only that it was different. Professor Lucey also made the point that this difference, this contrasting voice, could be useful to commercial companies. Christine Lagarde, the director of the International Monetary Fund, put the matter more bluntly - women can be very blunt - when she stated that if we had Lehman sisters, we may not have had Lehman Brothers.

What is at play in politics is not active prejudice but quiet inertia, a view that if one leaves the issue alone, it will fix itself in its own good time. It is as if the imbalance in our Houses of Parliament were like a head cold, in other words, self-limiting. According to this view, if we drink lots of liquids, the problem will be gone in a week or ten days. The imbalance in Leinster House will not be redressed by lemon drinks but will be solved by quotas. While quotas will not and should not change the face of Leinster House overnight, they will kick out the inertia and allow people of both genders a wider choice.

Yeats stated, "peace comes dropping slow." The same could be said for other things. Change and equality come dropping slow, much too slow. It is time to get a move on in this place, which is supposed to be a source of thought leadership for the nation. Quotas will not bend democracy out of shape. They will bend it into shape and will be one last step towards acknowledging the equality of half of our population.

One of A. G. Wells fictional characters stated:

It is our very importance that degrades us [women]. While we were minding the children they [the men] stole our rights and liberties.

Quotas are helping minority groups claim back their rights in politics and education and deconstructing structural discrimination. They help change cultures by forcing society to unlearn. As a teacher and school principal, I always argued that learning adds value. I hope and believe this Bill will begin a process of unlearning.

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