Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Is mór an onóir dom labhairt anseo ar son Fhianna Fáil mar gheall ar an ócáid thábhachtach seo.

In remembering the 1918 election the single greatest theme that emerges is that of democratisation across a whole host of areas: the participation of women both within the electorate and as candidates, the participation for the first time of young working class men, and of course, the trebling of the electorate for the first election that had been held in seven years. The result and the changes were absolutely seismic.

What were the messages from that election? The electorate spoke out against conscription. They spoke out in democratic acceptance of the need of the establishment of the First Dáil and indeed independence and spoke out in electing a woman for the very first time. Countess Markievicz, a warrior queen, powerful, fearless and a decisive and a forceful leader fought for women to be part of society on an equal footing with men, and thus started a century of struggle for equality and for justice. This year was and has been an opportunity to celebrate exceptional women like Constance, like Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, Winnie Kearney and others who have gone before us. We stand on their shoulders and the shoulders of women over the past 100 years. I include our mothers and our grandmothers in that. Women who day by day, step by step, carried us forward and created opportunity and gave us choice. They were women who lived through changing times and in small acts and great gestures, they threw off and tore apart the matrix of discrimination. It has to be accepted that 100 years on from that moment we have still not ended the journey which saw its first major achievement in 1918.

We should use this milestone to reflect on the road ahead and also recognise the achievements of 1918 and to acknowledge, in my limited speaking time, the work of the Houses of the Oireachtas in this, the Vótáil 100 committee chaired by Senator Bacik and the Women's Caucus chaired by Deputy Catherine Martin. This has been a seminal year for feminism. The battle for equal rights absolutely continues and to get greater female participation in politics. More work needs to be done on important societal issues such as sexual and domestic violence, gender pay gaps, pension inequality and maternal and reproductive health, to name but a few. We need to enable men to be homemakers and to support women.

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