Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to have the opportunity to contribute to these statements on International Women's Day. I have just stepped out temporarily from the Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, where we are discussing a large number of amendments to the Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022, which, as we know, came as a result of the mother and baby institutions.

That is one of the negative parts of our history and of how we treated women and children.

I will focus primarily on the early years and childcare sector, mainly because we know through numerous studies and surveys that one of the key reasons women are locked out of the workforce and returning to education is trying to access and afford childcare. It is also a predominantly female sector. Of the approximately 27,000 people working in the sector, easily over 90% are women. It is not the only workforce where women are in low-paid employment. If one looked through all the low-paid work that exists, women would, unfortunately, top that list time and again.

We hear many excellent speeches and I feel honoured to be in this Chamber. We talk about various things we would like to see happen, including the progression of women, whether through returning to education, getting back into work or going from part time to full time. Many women try to take parental leave in their job, which obviously affects their career progression. People say it does not but we all know it does. It also has an impact on women's pensions when they come to that age. Many of us do not think about that until later in life but it is important. If we are serious about the progression of women, we have to be serious about tackling the issue of the cost of early years, and those working in the sector need to be respected with proper terms, conditions and wages. They should not have to sign on to social welfare over the summer and parents should not be paying, according to the Government's research, in the region of €1,350 per month per child for childcare.

In 2020, we launched an initiative called My Childcare Story and had a number of people give us feedback on that. Some 90% of people said childcare costs were a barrier to them returning to the workforce, while 73% had serious difficulties accessing a place. I want to take the opportunity, when speaking on issues particularly affecting women, to look at that. There are many issues and I am always torn about what I want to say when we speak about the various things that impact women, but that is one of the key things.

I will touch on gender-based violence. Our first week back after Christmas was one of the few times I saw the House seemingly in agreement on an issue, which was on tackling gender-based violence. We cannot just have the odd day where we come in here, say it is terrible and we had better do something about it, then all go away and nothing gets done. We need to see that strategy published and properly resourced. I welcome that the strategy is going to be under one Department. That is key because it does not allow for passing the buck when things are under one Department. It is important that it be resourced properly. We know already we do not have enough refuge beds and, in my constituency, we have an entire county with no refuge for women fleeing domestic violence.

See this speech in context