Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I love my job because being a Deputy can have an impact. I am particularly excited to talk about legislation that will have a serious impact. Put simply, the Bill will allow for councillors in local government to take maternity leave for the very first time but the added benefit of it is that it will encourage more women into politics.

I am a member of the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage that has been scrutinising this legislation and I am often struck that I am the only female Deputy on that committee. When we met as a select committee without my colleague Senators, Senators Seery Kearney, Fitzpatrick and Moynihan, I become the only female voice in those discussions. It serves as a visual reminder of how under-represented women are in this Chamber and in council chambers across the country.

While we have more women in the Dáil than ever before, it is still not enough. This legislation will tackle one of the prevailing inequalities that keeps women away from a career in politics, and that is maternity leave. Given the obvious career path for any aspiring female politician is to stand for local elections first and to learn the trade in a council chamber, this is a real opportunity to make local government more attractive to women. It is also the first step in proving that local government is inclusive by facilitating maternity leave for councillors.

I commend the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, his advisor, Ms Laura Mannion, and my Fine Gael colleague, Councillor Lorraine Hall, on all the work they have done on this in addition to their departmental officials. Creating a conversation and, more importantly, a legislative framework and now putting it into action is real change.

The Minister of State has worked hand in hand with the AILG and LAMA, the council representative organisations that have fed views of councillors from the ground into this process too. The Minister of State had engagement also with the group, Women for Election, the cross-party representative body of female councillors which Councillor Hall is on and the cross-representative body of female Oireachtas Members too. I commend the Minister of State on that level of engagement and collaboration and on the tireless work that all of those groups are doing to bring about change and to amplify the voices of women in politics. We need that, because women make up only 24% of council chambers and 22% of this Chamber.

The Minister of State previously described it as a cultural change and that is absolutely what we need when it comes to politics. At a local level, three out of four councillors are men, which is not representative of Irish society.

See Her Elected is an organisation doing incredible work in supporting women who are interested in standing for local elections. It is a positive, energetic and engaged group. I hope they do not mind me saying that what they have to say is utterly depressing. They told me that we still have a local authority with only one female councillor. The statistics and the stories that they have told me are absolutely depressing. I do not mean any disservice to the work that local authorities are doing but that has to change.

One of the most important things we can do to make sure that council chambers are welcoming spaces is introduce maternity leave, as the Minister of State is doing now. Right now, young women thinking about starting a family do not fit in politics. They would not have access to maternity leave and that is a basic human right. In today's world, it should not be progressive to provide workers with maternity leave but in this case it is, and I welcome that wholeheartedly.

I am very glad to hear about the €230 a week that will go towards administrative support for women on maternity leave. I believe the allowance is also extended to those on illness leave. This is a very welcome move. It is great that illness leave has been included in the Bill because it is something that, unfortunately, many of us may require in the event of long-term illness. At present various local authorities treat councillors who need to take time off due to illness differently. This is not fair and it is not equitable. I am happy that the Bill will change this. It will deliver equity and fairness and standardise things.

A very important part of the Bill is the resolution to have a temporary substitute co-opted by the local authority in the case of maternity leave or extended leave if the councillor so chooses. This substitution comes to an end when the maternity leave or the illness leave ends. This has been handled very well in the legislation. There is no ambiguity so there can be no room for disagreement in respect of people who want to stay in the roles when the leave comes to an end. This has been dealt with adequately.

I have some questions which I also raised during pre-legislative scrutiny. They are with regard to how the co-option process will work. Will it be the same as the current situation whereby the name of the councillor goes to a full local authority meeting for ratification? I know it is a formality but, ultimately, because of ruling groups there is an opportunity for people to be overruled. This would not be in the spirit of the legislation.

The legislation is written in such a way that the nomination for substitution is made by the political party. I ask all political parties to respect the wishes of the women taking maternity leave. If a woman is replaced by a direct competitor at the whim of her party, it will not make maternity leave a less stressful time. I ask political parties to consider the wishes of anybody going on leave, including illness leave, in this situation. I know there are some people, including Councillor Joanna Tuffy in my area, who have been vocal in expressing reservations that this could be abused to undermine local democracy. This is exactly why we need the elected person and not the party to be the designator of the substitute.

The Bill is very innovative and ground-breaking. If the Minister of State will excuse the pun, it is overdue. I hope we will look back in years to come and see how it has improved not only the working conditions for women at local government level but also representation of women in politics at local and national level. That would be a true impact. At present one in four councillors is a woman. If we double that figure to two in four, it will be a long and lasting change. That has to be the goal if our democracy is to be truly representative.

It would be remiss of me while we are debating legislation on maternity leave at local level, not to mention that we still do not have provisions regarding maternity leave for women elected to the Dáil or Seanad. This is not a matter that will go away. We cannot delay any longer on this. We need to deliver for women and their families at all levels of politics, whether that is a local council, national government or the Cabinet as we have seen recently.

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