Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

In her inaugural address in December 1990, Mary Robinson declared: "As a woman, I want women who have felt themselves outside history to be written back into history, in the words of Eavan Boland, 'finding a voice where they found a vision'". President Robinson was acknowledging that her landmark election owed a great deal to stalwarts of feminism like Eavan Boland and Máire Mhac an tSaoi, people who had been writing women back into history and the female experience back into Irish society. In a week when we have lost extraordinary figures in Irish culture, we would do well to acknowledge the role of the feminist pen in the line drawn from the election of Ireland first woman President to the work completed by the Citizen's Assembly on Gender Equality. As a result of that work, we have 45 clear recommendations to better our society for all our citizens. Just as gender inequality shadows all aspects of our society, these recommendations span sectors with key recommendations for leadership and politics, social protection and education, and tackling pay disparity and domestic violence.

I offer my thanks to the members of the citizens' assembly for their work. They have proved again, through the power of the process, the value of deliberative democracy. As with the work of the Citizens' Assembly on Climate Change, informed and nuanced discussion can and should underpin policy-informed decision-making in the work of Government. As we face a range of enormous challenges in housing, pension reform, social inequalities and our climate and biodiversity emergency, this deliberative democracy model can help us plot a path forward, regardless of where Twitter polls or newspaper surveys with leading questions may try to deflect. Where social media and clickbait headlines serve to polarise, inclusive and informed debate serves to unify. If we are to address and overcome the enormous challenges ahead and bring our citizens with us on that arduous road, that in-depth and considered engagement is essential.

The carefully considered recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality provide us with clear directions towards a better and fairer society. While a special Oireachtas committee is being set up to comprehensively address the recommendations, it is worth noting work has already begun. In the short life of this Government, we have begun to take some of the necessary steps to address gender inequality, reflecting a number of the key recommendations from the citizens' assembly. In the recent budget, the Minister introduced ground-breaking funding for the childcare sector, designed to deliver quality and affordable childcare for children and their parents and stability for childcare providers. It is the start of a multi-annual investment programme, which will achieve real and practical improvements in people's lives. There will be an extension of the universal subsidy available under the national childcare scheme to all children under 15, which will allow all children availing of early learning and childcare to receive a subsidy to offset the often eye-watering childcare fees. It will also see a cessation of the practice of deducting hours spent in preschool or school from the entitlement to the national childcare scheme subsidised hours. This is of particular benefit to children from low income families whose parents are not in work or study. The Minister also announced an additional two weeks' leave and benefit to the current five weeks of parent's benefit, which can be taken during the first two years of a child's life or, in the case of adoption, within two years of the placement of the child with family.

These steps forward demonstrate this Government's commitment to improving access to childcare, barriers which compound existing gender inequalities in our society. They are steps forward on a path to gender inequality and achieving one of the key recommendations of the citizens' assembly to move to a publicly funded, accessible and regulated model of childcare over the next decade.

I have spoken numerous times in this House on the United Nations sustainable development goals, SDGs, and how they set out a path to a more just sustainable and better future for us all. Goal 5 is particularly germane to this debate in that it focuses on gender equality. However, progress on this goal requires strong progress for girls and women across every SDG, including those related to quality education, reduced inequalities, decent work and economic growth and others. Similarly, the key recommendations of the citizens' assembly recognises the need to ensure our societal structures provide a level playing field for all genders.

Another key recommendation in the report is in the area of leadership in the workplace. It outlines how places of work should be required to develop, resource, implement and monitor gender-neutral recruitment and promotion policies and practices, including specific policies to promote gender equality in leadership positions. From my background as primary school teacher, I am aware of a real-world example of the imbalance of gender representation from my days in the classroom. In 1961, nearly 40% of primary school teachers were men but today that figure is below 15%. Yet, although there is a minority of men in primary school classrooms, they are not disadvantaged when it comes to promotion in the education system.

Just over 50% of primary school principals are female. We must ask what the reasons are for this anomaly and also what message it sends out. If you have to see it to be it, what does a girl in primary school see when see looks at her school leadership? When I look around my new workplace of the past year and a half, I see the need to enable female representation throughout the political establishment. If you have to see it to be it, then what does a young girl in Ireland see in her political sphere?

Change is necessary: a change in the right direction following the right path. The 45 recommendations of the members of the Citizens' Assembly are pointing the way forward, but I feel strongly that this is not a report that can be left to gather dust and sit on the shelf, as so many reports have done in the past. Let us expedite the establishment of a special Oireachtas committee to consider how best we deal with these recommendations. After that, let us put it into practice. These are excellent recommendations that have been developed through an excellent process. Let us put them in place and see a better and more just society for all citizens.

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