Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In April, the chair of the assembly, Catherine Day, said:

The recommendations the citizens agreed don’t just call for incremental change. They call for big changes that can make Ireland a better and more gender equal place to live for all of us. They call for change in our Constitution, for new laws and policies and for stronger enforcement.

It is long past time for big changes. In the 100 years since women won the right to vote, millions of stories of strong women have forged the way ahead, fighting for equality of treatment with thought and action. Wives, daughters, aunts, mothers, grandmothers and sisters are still fighting because, in Ireland today, women are not equal.

I thoroughly welcome the key recommendations, especially the recommendation to: "Delete and replace the text of Article 41.2 (woman in the home) with language that is not gender specific and obliges the State to take reasonable measures to support care within the home and wider community." It is high time that we talked about how little we value women, how we do not honour the incredibly important role of motherhood and how we constantly place barriers to women leaving the home. Let us talk about freeing women from old perceptions of who she is – "her outdoors" instead of "her indoors", as the joke goes. The Constitution states the woman should not have to leave the home and neglect her duties because of economics but we do not pay that woman for the work that the article in the Constitution says is very important. We give universal child benefit but only until a child is 18. We do not pay women who do not have children and they have to go out and get the money themselves and, as the article states, neglect the home. There is no place for this kind the of language or this kind of judgment. We should be equal, inclusive and gender neutral.

Working women provide a massive contribution to society as teachers, doctors, sisters, daughters, engineers, lawyers, singers and politicians.

Some of them do that as mothers too. This State does little to value its women. We have gender inequality in the workplace, in our board rooms and in our homes. We need to change how we talk if we are to change how we think. It is time we free ourselves from old ways of thinking, open the kitchen door and let women out by removing this article from the Constitution in its entirety.

We should allow women who stay at home apply to the State for a wage. We should continue to pay child benefit until a child has left the home and earns his or her own money. We should stop this nonsense of a woman having a place at all. She is a woman and can be any place she wants.

According to the Centre for Women's Global Leadership, in the absence of targeted measures and investment by Government, we will see major roll-backs in gender equality and profound challenges for women workers in the post-Covid-19 world. We need those measures here.

Women are significantly outnumbered by men in both local and national politics in Ireland. If we are not at the table we cannot voice our opinions and female friendly policies. There are 36 female Deputies in the Dáil. That in itself shows the status we have. Those figures are worrying. We should be encouraging women into politics. We need to make sure that is highlighted. We should not have to create a family friendly society in which women can run for office. A woman should be able to run for office because she would be good at the job. Culture barriers must be addressed through the education system, civil education programmes and voter education initiatives. A culture change is needed. We all have to examine our culture and education. That needs to be addressed. We need to speak more about it and to communicate more on it. That will be a big start for us all.

A review of fathers’ rights and paternity leave should be undertaken in order that children will not always be seen as an issue for mothers only. We must examine ways to support family time and to have a better work-life balance. I support the recommendation to amend Article 41o so that it would protect private and family life with the protection afforded to the family not limited to marital families.

We must examine the childcare provision. I had a number of meetings with the Minister prior to the budget on childcare and the cost of it. I am a granny myself. My daughters are working and I know from their experiences about the high cost of childcare. I deal with people who raise the issue of childcare in my constituency clinics every day. They say it can be a barrier for them. It is a big barrier to women returning to work. We must also have proper pay for workers in the childcare sector who are educators. That is the proper name for them. I welcome the budgetary measure that will address their wages. The educators in our childcare sector need to be paid proper wages.

Another issue I constantly raise is the lack of a women’s refuge in Carlow. It is a massive issue for me. This issue is raised with me daily by women with children who call to my constituency clinics and they have to go to Kilkenny or Waterford to get that support. This is 2021 and there is not a women’s refuge in Carlow. That is unacceptable. We should not have to have a women’s refuge but we need them. We need to let women know that if, through no fault of theirs, they have to leave their home at night time or get support that these supports are in place. Places like Carlow and the 31 local authority areas should have a women’s refuge. I am passionate about this issue. I have spoken about this to the council, to the Minister with responsibility for housing and to the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and I am speaking to the Minister present about it now. All the Departments need to work together on this. This issue falls under the remit of different Departments. I have spoken to the Minister, Deputy McEntee, about this issue several times. It is something we should deliver on.

When women with children call to me about needing this support and I do not have somewhere to recommend they can go or somewhere nearby, that is very disheartening for me as a female politician. While the Minister does not have responsibility for the budget, we all need to ensure women's refuges are provided where they are needed. I ask that the Minister talk to his ministerial colleagues about this, and I know he will. I know how passionate he is about issues like this.

I welcome these recommendations. Timing will be an important factor. We need to get these through as quick as possible. It is only a start. We have a long way to go. We need to start a culture change. Women can multitask and are good at it. We need to see more women in our Houses of Parliament. We also need more female councillors. Of the 18 council councillors in Carlow, only two are women. We need to broaden the spectrum through boards or committees. We need women in those positions. I firmly believe they will deliver just as good as the men.

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