Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will only be approximately ten minutes.

The rightful position of women in Irish society is as equals in every way. The 1937 Constitution should be amended to entrench unambiguously women's equality in all aspects of life as part of a comprehensive bill or charter of rights. Constitutional recognition should also be given to the unquestionable economic and social value of unpaid domestic, agricultural and care work. This should be gender neutral, encompassing in particular care of children, the elderly and people with disabilities. It should be complemented by constitutional protections for economic and social rights in a bill or charter of rights, including the equal rights to work and to an adequate standard of living.

Despite the fact that the likes of Mrs. Justice Denham and others have interpreted the real function of Article 41.2 as being to recognise unpaid care work and that it can be construed as gender neutral in a modern context, for avoidance of doubt it would be preferable if this clause was removed in favour of robust and comprehensive equality guarantees for women in the context of a bill or charter of rights. Removal or amendment of the clause is not enough. Women need unambiguous constitutional guarantees to enable them to hold the State accountable under law for all violations of our equal rights, be those through actions or failures to act such as in the case of the Magdalen women, the death of Savita Halappanavar, the one in five women who experiences domestic violence and the one in four women who experiences sexual violence or other sexual abuse in her lifetime.

If unpaid care work is to be constitutionally recognised for its economic and social contribution to the life of the State, it should be done by way of a gender-neutral clause recognising all such work, including by men. This work should no longer be, and is no longer, the exclusive domain of women. The increasing contribution of men should be encouraged and recognised as necessary to women's equality as well as to the overall quality of Irish life.

This latter proposal is in keeping with the recommendations made by the Constitutional Review Group, CRG, and the Oireachtas All-Party Committee on the Constitution, as well as the UN Human Rights Committee, the Irish Human Rights Commission - to bring it into line with Ireland's equality obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and with the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, respectively - and most of the civil society submissions.

The Constitution should guarantee women's equal representation and equal access to participation in public life, particularly in public leadership and management roles. As one way of implementing this guarantee, our party supports the introduction of gender quotas as a special temporary measure to accelerate the equal - at least 50% - representation of women in the Parliament, the Executive, local councils, the European Parliament, the European Commission, the Judiciary, State boards, semi-State and other statutory public bodies and any other organisation that is in receipt of public funding.

We support such quotas with a view to their earliest possible obsolescence as such equal representation becomes normalised and entrenched. Gender targets could be incrementally phased in, for example, starting on a 30% or 40% basis if necessary, but the ultimate goal is a 50:50 gender balance within short order.

One of the advices to which I have always been drawn is that an economy should serve society, not vice versa. I am mindful of a superb lecture that I attended given by Professor Kathleen Lynch, who champions the cause of equality. I was concerned about quotas simply papering over the cracks, in that they would not make institutions and politics amenable to women. Professor Lynch pointed out that, if we considered the care provided to our elderly, our children and people who are failed by those of us in politics, even if that was not our intent, women were at the heart of those caring situations. If we want to deliver for the elderly and, in particular, the disabled in terms of their rights, their entitlements, education and the caring issues that we somehow fail on, we need more women because they live that life and know that reality. I remember being struck during the lecture that this was why we needed quotas and to include more women as soon as possible. The meeting of such targets must be subject to strict deadlines with appropriate penalties attached.

Regarding constitutional measures, we can support the introduction of 50:50 gender quotas for political party nominations for all elections and ministerial appointments, as well as for judicial nominations and appointments to State and semi-State boards of management and to the boards of other statutory bodies and those in receipt of public funding. Gender quotas for elections should be met by way of a list system. However, if supported by appropriate and sufficient general constitutional guarantees of equality, equal representation and access, such quotas could also be introduced by way of ordinary legislation.

As my party has supported affirmative action measures to achieve equal representation of Northern Nationalists, we believe that consideration should also be given to whether there should be constitutional commitments to increasing diversity and representation in public life through affirmative action measures for under-represented groups, for example, people with disabilities and ethnic minorities such as Travellers and people from Ireland's new communities. The quotas that Sinn Féin has implemented work. The highly capable women of our party are coming out of their backroom roles where they were and still are concentrated. This corroborates the strong evidence from other jurisdictions that experienced rapid increases from low bases and where women's representation is highest.

Claims are made regarding evidence of lower corruption where women's representation is higher. These claims are correct. If true, this could be of significant benefit to society and politics more generally. Increased women's participation in electoral contests could raise the overall quality of representation by widening the candidate pool. This could also help redress a notable problem in politics, leading to improved decision making.

I would also ask that the convention consider, under item No. 9, provisions to diversify political life further and to increase representation of minorities, for example, people with disabilities and ethnic minorities, such as Travellers and the new Irish. Our party has submitted a proposal to the constitutional convention, entitled "A Bill of Rights Amendment", calling for provisions to be more properly contained within a comprehensive and robust bill or charter of rights. This could be considered under the open remit of item No. 9. A bill of rights is an outstanding commitment under the Good Friday Agreement that must be honoured. Perhaps the likes of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, IHREC, or the Irish Congress of Trade Unions could preside over a debate on how to clarify the rights of citizens in the Constitution for advocates and citizens instead of leaving it to Supreme Court justices to interpret.

I will briefly address some of the initiatives that Sinn Féin has taken to ensure gender equality within our party. Its objective is to reach 50:50 representation of women and men among our membership, leadership and elected representatives. I am proud to say that our party constitution commits us to gender quotas with respect to our internal leadership. We have a policy of incrementally increasing quotas for women candidates at all levels of public office, starting with a target of 30% and increasing to 50% as soon as practicable. To increase the immediate representation of women and the likelihood of re-election through incumbency, we have adopted a policy that all seat co-options should be to women until such time as the 50% target is met.

In the Assembly we have adopted a practice of gender equality in ministerial appointments. We have also increased our female general membership to nearly 30% and will be adopting a plan to pursue further increases in the participation of women in Sinn Féin.

I welcome the outcome of the convention's deliberations on this topic. I am glad that in 2013 we are moving towards removing the archaic and outdated clauses within our Constitution. I wish the convention all the best for the remainder of its time.

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