Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the Labour Party, I welcome the Bill. I commend the Minister of State on all the work that has been done on its provisions and on the engagement and consultation with the different groups involved. In my role as vice chair of the women's caucus, I am appreciative of the consultation with our members. We had long expressed a desire to see provision made for maternity protection for women representatives in local government. As the Chair of the Joint Committee on Gender Equality, I am glad to see this Bill being introduced. I acknowledge the other members of the joint committee, including Deputy Cronin. They will also welcome this Bill because it gives affect to recommendation 23(a) of the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality. The assembly recommended to us that family friendly practices for all representatives elected to public office should be improved by "making maternity, paternity and parental leave available to all elected representatives, including Ministers". It is welcome, therefore, to see this legislation coming forward and, like others, I hope for its speedy passage.

The Minister of State referred to the consultation and the groups with which he had worked on this legislation. It is good to acknowledge the cross-party group of councillors, the AILG and the stakeholders working on women's rights and equality issues, namely, the NWCI, See Her Elected and Women for Election. I commend the great work being done by those groups in seeking to increase the levels of representation of women in politics at national and local level. As a member of the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights previously, I authored a 2009 report on women's participation in politics in which we coined the phrase "the five Cs". The latter has been used quite extensively since then in expressing, in a clear way, the obstacles faced by women in engaging in more active and more equal participation in public life.

The five Cs are that women tend to have a lack of confidence compared with male counterparts, we tend to have a lack of cash in comparison with men, and this is being addressed through gender pay gap legislation, and there is also an old boys culture throughout politics that holds women back. In addition to those three Cs of confidence, cash and culture, a fourth C stands for childcare. In this regard, we again see a lack of support in childcare and maternity provision as being a major factor, as the Minister of State said, in preventing women's career progression through political Iife. We also identified a fifth C, because those four Cs could be said to exist in all careers and professions and that they hold women back. The fifth C in the context of political life represents candidate selection procedures. We recommended in 2009 that this matter should be addressed through the introduction of gender quota legislation. This recommendation, I am glad to say, was adopted in 2012, as colleagues will all be aware. We now have a 30% gender quota, which is due to rise to 40%. That will happen in the next general election. This quota only applies to general election candidacy and only to political parties in requiring them to select at least 30% of their candidates of each gender. That will rise to 40% at the next general election. This quota, which was the subject of some controversy when it was first introduced in 2012, has been effective. We saw a significant increase, from 16% to 22%, in the number of female Deputies in the Dáil after the first general election in which it applied, namely, that held in 2015.

Unfortunately, some stagnation has occurred since, as the Minister of State will be aware. I refer to the 2020 general election. My election to the Dáil last summer meant that we reached the dizzy heights of 23% of Deputies being women. This is still far too low. This is the highest number we have ever had of women representatives in public life, with 37 out of 160 Deputies being women, but it is still far too low. As the Minister of State will be well aware, we stand at about 100 in the world rankings in the Inter-Parliamentary Union of women's representation in political life. We clearly need to do more to address the other four Cs to which I refer. What I am saying in a roundabout way is that I welcome this legislation because it addresses one of the five Cs, namely, the childcare issue, at local government level. We are all conscious that local elections can often form an important pipeline into national politics. We are also aware that there are far too few women involved at local government level. The Minister of State gave a figure of 24% of women being elected in 2019. At less than a quarter of total representation, this is again far too low.

In the context of quotas, not only did the citizens' assembly recommend the extension of maternity and other forms of parental leave to elected representatives, it was also very clear about its wish to see the gender quota extended beyond general elections to local, Seanad and European Parliament elections. This is covered in recommendation 20. The Joint Committee on Gender Equality, with which the Minister of State's Department has engaged - and we are very appreciative of the level of engagement from across the Government - will be publishing its report on 15 December. We will be making recommendations on constitutional change in keeping with the citizens' assembly recommendations 1 to 3, inclusive.

We are clearly seeking to address unequal representation of women across many different areas of life and not just in public life and politics. This legislation is very much in keeping with the recommendations of the citizens' assembly on politics, albeit that we still do not have the quote extension to local elections. My request, in the context of recommendation 20, is that the Minister of State would consider the possibility of introducing legislation to extend the quota to local elections. This is something with which we have grappled for some time. The women's caucus has also been working on this issue.

Concern has been expressed that there is no direct link between the number of seats filled by parties at local elections and funding. We were able to use such a link in the Electoral (Amendment) (Political Funding) Act 2012 to ensure that a sanction would apply in situations where parties did not fulfil their gender quotas in candidate selection at general elections, with funding being cut by 50%. The same level of direct sanction does not exist in this regard, but it would still be perfectly possible to require, for example, some cut in funding as a result of a failure to meet a quota in local elections as well. I am just putting that out as a possibility because it is something we have deliberated on in the Joint Committee on Gender Equality. This issue has been raised on several occasions by the women's caucus and the citizens' assembly.

To return to the provisions of the Bill, as the Minister of State indicated and as the explanatory memorandum outlines, the purpose of this legislation is twofold. It is to extend maternity protection provisions to those who are officeholders, elected councillors, despite their not being employees. I very much welcome this aspect. Statutory maternity leave will now be provided for local authority elected members. This is the first and very welcome aim. The second, and also very welcome, aim is to enable and provide the option for an elected member absent from local authority, either because of maternity leave or through illness or in good faith for another reason, to nominate a temporary substitute to undertake their duties until their return. This is also welcome. It is something we have discussed and deliberated on for some time. It is one thing to be provided with the facility to take leave, but it is quite another thing to be able to ensure that duties are fulfilled while an officeholder is out on leave.

I am one of the few members of the Oireachtas who had a baby while serving as a Member. I was pregnant with my second daughter when I was elected to the Seanad for the first time in 2007. I recall clearly taking time out from appearing in the Seanad, but being conscious that no support was available, beyond the very welcome Oireachtas crèche, which I did use. It was very helpful that it was available part-time so I could come in for reduced hours to speak on debates in the Seanad. Certainly, though, other supports are clearly necessary. Other colleagues talked about the Minister, Deputy McEntee. It is very positive that she is being facilitated by other Government colleagues. It is certainly necessary, however, that we have a process, a system in place to ensure that Ministers can and do take maternity leave.

I very much welcome the change in Oireachtas procedures now whereby members who go on maternity leave can avail of additional administrative support. This is very welcome. It provides one way in which we see provision being made for public duties to be carried while facilitating a woman in taking necessary leave in the early months following the baby's birth. This is very important. At council level, a somewhat different provision, the temporary substitute proposition, is being put forward in the Bill. This is welcome and practical. It is also practical that it is being presented as an option. Clearly, it is not something that every woman who takes leave may wish to do, but it does exist as an option. Constitutional concerns have been raised.

I looked again at Article 28A of the Constitution. I look at the current provision in section 19 of the 2001 Local Government Act, where there is already provision for co-option. This is constitutionally robust. Article 28A of the Constitution refers to "such directly elected local authorities as may be determined by law". We can as legislators provide for the definition of "casual vacancy", which is precisely what is being done here. We can determine how, by law, how local authorities are elected and what is a local authority that is directly elected.

The Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, stated himself the current provision is clearly not only inadequate, but disrespectful and inappropriate for a woman taking maternity leave who has to seek this convoluted mechanism. The Minister of State put it eloquently, that a female councillor will not need to "go cap in hand" to seek permission to take leave. That is simply not tenable in contemporary society. We need to be offering supports and facilitating women in taking necessary maternity leave. We have moved to a point in society where it is absolutely necessary for us to do this. The temporary substitution provision is a way of doing this and ensuring that a councillor who wishes to do so can ensure that her public duties are undertaken in her temporary absence and that a casual vacancy does not arise as a result.

Section 2 of the Bill makes clear provision for the termination of the co-option in the proposed new section 19A(6). I suppose there might well be concerns raised about whether one could have two parallel representatives. Obviously, we can tease this out on Committee Stage. In section 2 and the proposed new section 19A(6), the Minister of State has made clear provision as to how the co-option or temporary substitution is to be terminated and that covers off that potential for parallel or duplicate representation which might well be raised by those with concerns about the Bill. As I say, we can perhaps have a more precise discussion of that provision on Committee Stage but the termination of the co-option is clearly set out.

The Minister of State has also stated that, for reasons of equality, he is not confining the temporary substitution provision to women taking maternity leave and he is also covering those who need to take leave through illness or in good faith for another reason. We might discuss further on Committee Stage the provision, "in good faith for another reason". How would that work? Would it cover, for example, short absences for a bereavement? Is that envisaged? Does that undermine the clear intent here, which is a gender-equality intent to encourage more women into politics to ensure there are supports for those women who need to take maternity leave while also fulfilling functions as a councillor? We might need to discuss that a little more on Committee Stage.

While this is a welcome Bill and I want to see its speedy progression, of course, as the Minister of State himself has said, there is more to be done to build on this. This Bill refers to one key part of recommendation 23(a) of the citizens' assembly related to maternity leave but recommendation 23(a) also talks about paternity and parental leave. The Minister of State has indicated his intention to review that provision once this Bill is through and that is a sensible way of approaching this. We can look then at how we can extend other forms of parental and paternity leave and parents' leave to elected representatives, obviously, not only at local level but at all levels.

In terms of leave provision, I also want to mention a Labour initiative I put forward in the Seanad that is currently on Committee Stage in the Seanad and was not opposed by Government, that is, the Organisation of Working Time (Reproductive Health Related Leave) Bill 2021. Like the Organisation of Working Time (Domestic Violence Leave) Bill 2020 proposed by Sinn Féin, it would amend the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 by providing for a short and contained period of leave, in our case for women experiencing early miscarriage for whom there is currently no provision in law. We have called for an up-to-20-day period of paid leave for early miscarriage and up to ten days' leave for access to reproductive healthcare treatment. I am conscious the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, has indicated that he is commissioning research on the introduction of provision for early miscarriage leave. There is some progress being made on that. I highlight that as another gap in current provisions for leave, which impacts on women's equal progression in workplaces.

I should say that the impetus for the Organisation of Working Time (Reproductive Health Related Leave) Bill 2021 came from the Irish National Teachers Organisation, INTO, which came to us to say that so many of its members had to take holiday time or sick leave where they had experienced early miscarriage, and that there was a taboo around this. Clearly, a large number of primary school teachers being women, the INTO felt this was a gender-equality issue and approached me about bringing forward legislation on it. It has had a long genesis. There is clearly a real need there to ensure that women enduring early miscarriage have some provision made through our workplace entitlements and workplace laws.

Finally, to return to the five Cs, there is a range of measures that need to be adopted to ensure greater representation for women in political life at all levels. This Bill forms an important part of the package of measures that are necessary. I very much welcome its introduction and look forward to working with the Minister of State to ensure its speedy passage, together with all the other recommendations of the citizens' assembly that we want to see implemented too.

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