Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Taoiseach. Regarding the position of women in Ireland, while the progress and advances have been significant, they have been lopsided.

On many occasions it is a bit like one step forward and two steps back. The idea of a Citizens' Assembly was first introduced to the Dáil by the Labour Party, when Eamon Gilmore was leader. It followed a period of examination and reflection by the Labour Party on how democracy could be made more meaningful and especially how very divisive debates could be addressed. Notwithstanding the advances, the equality position of women in Ireland at the moment is very disappointing. In particular, we have a lot of exceptionalism when it comes to officeholders. Women come and go but it seems men are there forever in the overwhelming majority of cases. For instance, we have never had a woman as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, as Minister for Finance or as Secretary General in the financial area and clearly we have never had a woman Taoiseach.

In terms of income and pensions, the Government failed to make any mention, for example, of the supplementary pension scheme, in which I was heavily involved, the purpose of which was to allow women, who are often lower paid and who have broken service in paid work because of rearing families and other family commitments, to get a supplementary pension. Such a scheme would give those women in particular an opportunity to supplement the State retirement pension, which might be the only income they would have to rely on in retirement.

In terms of a lord mayor of Dublin, it is clear there is a need for more local democracy in Dublin but that discussion must be a broad one. If we have a singular lord mayor we need to have a very clear idea of the role and whether the person will have the capacity to deal with housing or to be in some way responsible for the quality of planning in the city, which at the moment leaves much to be desired. How will we address the greening of the city and in particular the serious development of public transport that will encourage people to leave their cars at home and to use public transport?

I would like to know the timeline for both referendums and if the Taoiseach will have a discussion with Opposition parties and other interested persons on what should be the subject matter of the referendums. For instance, has the Taoiseach made up his mind on the position of women in the home?

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