Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I also commend Deputy Carroll MacNeill on putting forward this far-seeing Bill which seeks to amend our Constitution and ultimately change the way we do things in this building so that it becomes a far more family-friendly workplace.

I have been deeply fortunate to have been walking in the gates of Leinster House for 15 years now. It is an extraordinary privilege to be able to do so, to represent the people of Galway East, to air their views and their aspirations for the Ireland they aspire to. We never lose sight of that. I do not think any one of us in this House ever loses sight of what an extraordinary privilege it is to be here. That said, 15 years ago I had a ten-year-old son. He is now 25 and very happy but there is no question that my relationship with him suffered in those 15 years as a result of the work practices within this building. In the last number of years, those work practices have become even less family friendly and continue to pile even more pressure on all of us who work within this Parliament.

This Bill not alone gives us cause to reflect on the very specific changes that need to be made to our Constitution to make this place a far more family-friendly workplace, it should also force us into questioning what other aspects of this workplace make it so unfriendly to being parents and carers for those who matter to us in our lives. When we introduced gender quotas a number of years ago, it was a very welcome development in terms of making this House, and indeed the other House, a far more diverse place that is far more representative of Irish society as a whole. However, I always felt that it was not the far-reaching solution that we needed in order to ensure that we would see that kind of diversity in Leinster House. Quotas are part of the solution but I fundamentally believe that we could throw open the gates of Leinster House tomorrow morning to people from all walks of life but once they had an opportunity to talk to somebody who works here, they might think twice about pursuing a career in politics. Ultimately, that is what we have to look at here. How do we ensure that anybody who is contemplating a life in politics, a life of public service and democratic representation feels they are going into a place that is family friendly and conducive to having good, strong healthy relationships with those people who matter in their lives? This is really important and ground-breaking legislation from Deputy Carroll MacNeill that forces us to ask questions of ourselves, to ask what we need to do to ensure that kind of change happens.

At the end of what has been an extraordinarily challenging time for our country in terms of the pandemic and as we return to normal, it is very important that we question what aspects of normal are worth returning to. If all we do is turn the page and return to 2019 and if things continue on as they did before, then we will have lost the opportunity to learn a lot of very valuable lessons from how things were done during that time. We pressed the fast forward button on how we can shape our workplaces for the future. Remote working became part of life for those of us who work in this place and for many thousands who work elsewhere. In that context, we should lead by example and look at opportunities to allow for participation in the parliamentary process from remote locations. Perhaps it will not be as difficult as we think and the technology certainly exists to allow us to do that. There are successful examples of this in other countries and, as others have said, in the European Parliament itself. That can be the new normal.

The women and men who drafted our Constitution 80 years ago never envisaged the world we live in right now, in 2022. They never envisaged the opportunities that are presenting to us right now to create far more family-friendly workplaces that people would find attractive. This is a very special moment in the life of the Houses of the Oireachtas, when we look to establish a workplace that is family friendly and conducive to people being normal, active and participative members of society. I commend Deputy Carroll MacNeill and look forward to seeing the remaining elements of this legislation passing as quickly as possible.

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