Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his extraordinary work on this important legislation. Tomorrow, the special Joint Committee on Gender Equality will publish its report, and it is no surprise that focusing on the issue of women in politics and public life was a key target of that committee, and of the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality, to find practical ways to provide help and assistance to encourage more women into politics.

I acknowledge the work of Councillor Lorraine Hall of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, who is currently on maternity leave from her other job, given she has had her second baby in two years since she was elected as a councillor in 2019. Many of us will know how difficult it is to have a baby or even to have two babies, but having a full-time job while being a councillor constitutes an extraordinarily large volume of work, and she has managed not just that but also her contribution to this legislation, to her work with the Minister of State and to Women for Election. I acknowledge the Minister of State has engaged substantially with women's groups such as Women for Election, See Her Elected and others to try to provide support.

The legislation is deeply welcome, even if it is overdue, and it is a tribute to the Minister of State that he has carried it all the way from the initial idea stage to its passage in the House. The importance of it speaks to the huge dearth of women that remains in public and political life. It is still unnatural whereby half of the population is so completely under-represented in our representative chambers. Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council is the only chamber in the country where there is a 50:50 split, as far as I am aware, and I would like us to maintain that in the next local elections. Trying to attract women into politics is really difficult, however, and trying to attract, as I am trying to do in my area, new women candidates to run for the local election is genuinely challenging, Even where there are clear vacancies in which women would do well, it is difficult to persuade women to run. I do not know exactly why that is and I do not want to talk down politics, but it relates to the practicalities. Providing the facility for women to manage more easily the natural demands of life and family with politics is very important, and the Bill is one tangible example of that, so the Minister of State is to be congratulated on it.

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