Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We have made much progress on gender equality as a country in the past few decades. We should not be embarrassed to acknowledge that, whether it is the repeal of the eighth amendment, new laws related to domestic violence, the ratification at long last of the Istanbul Convention, the reform of our divorce laws, gender quotas for election to this Dáil, or subsidised childcare for the first time in the national childcare scheme coming into effect in the next couple of weeks. That is important for men as well as women, but can be very important for women. Participation in higher education by women has increased dramatically in recent years, with better parental leave, and with parental benefit coming into effect in a few weeks for the first time. There will be improved maternity benefits. An initiative that I have been especially involved in is Better Balance for Better Business, to encourage private sector companies to ensure that more women are on private sector company boards. We have well above 40% female membership of State boards. I think more women than men were appointed to State boards for the first time last year. We are pursuing the national strategy for women and girls. A women's health task force has been re-established and that in many ways responds to a matter raised by Deputy Connolly earlier. Even though it is controversial, the advancement of 45 female-only senior academic roles in the higher education sector is a good idea, and it is being pushed forward by the Minister of State, Deputy Mitchell O'Connor. It is fair to say that the Government has been very active in pursuing a gender equality agenda.

With regard to women's refuges, I appreciate that capacity is deficient. There are plans for some new ones or at least to increase capacity but I have to double-check that. We need to change the approach. If somebody is being domestically abused, experiencing violence in the home or being attacked by his or her partner, the partner should move out of the house, not the woman and the kids. We have changed the law to make that easier to make sure that the abusive partner, whether it is the man or the woman, has to leave the home, and not the person who is being abused.

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