Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to be in this Chamber for a third International Women's Day. It is a huge privilege to be in a position to speak for women. This morning I began my day by visiting Wygram Nursing Home in Wexford. There were probably 30 women there aged from 75 to the great old age of 98 who were delighted to see me and I was delighted to see them. All too often on International Women's Day, and every other day, we lose touch with that age group when they go to a nursing home. They were all delighted with their care. They told me they were receiving wonderful care. They had wonderful entertainment. We had a sing-song. I asked them all where they were from and where they had been. Many had travelled to different parts of the world. Many had worked in the UK and other places and come back to Ireland. They are an inspiration. They are the people to tell us what their lives were like and how far we have come. I was there for an hour. I would have spent the day there but I had another engagement at the other end of the spectrum.

I went to Coláiste Bríde in Enniscorthy which is an all-girls schools that had invited me to speak to the pupils on the occasion of International Women's Day. I thought I was to only speak until I received a document by email which was a list of questions I was to be asked in 35 minutes. The document was called Embrace Equity. That is the name of their campaign. It states the aim of the #embraceequity campaign is to get the world talking about why equal opportunities are not enough; that equality is the goal and equity is the means by which to get there; that people start from different places so true inclusion and belonging require equitable action. That is brilliant from the age group of 13 to 17. I will give the House a flavour of some of the questions I was asked in the school where I spoke to the pupils for an hour. The selection of questions I was asked included whether I think girls are losing interest in politics. The second question was about the First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, and former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, who both resigned their positions recently. I was asked whether I think this is because it is becoming harder for women to fulfil these roles. My honest opinion is that I do not think it is becoming harder. We have to put up with a lot, not based on our gender, but because we are politicians. Women in particular know when their time is up and when what they have to offer has been given and when they deserve to take their lives back and go down another route because they do not see they have more to give. These are two great women who I admire greatly and who gave much to the political world.

We have women in this Chamber who have given their lives to politics, such as the two ladies who recently retired from the co-leadership of the Social Democrats. They have given their lives to politics at local level and as Deputies. They are to be commended. I am not sure there is a lifelong future for anyone who enters politics given the rise of social media, unless we get a grip on it. I answered the young girls honestly. Another question was on whether politics is male-dominated and how women are treated by their male colleagues and counterparts. I answered honestly. The truth is that not all males are very nice. Sometimes they sit beside you in studios and different places and pretend to be your best friend and that they would not offend anyone, but the truth is that we have a mindset that sets us against one another. We need to change that.

There is no need for young girls to worry about how they are treated by men. They must change their own perception of how they need to be in leadership roles. They can absolutely enter politics without fear or favour. The mindset should be that people know whether they can or cannot. That is how I live most of my life. If you want something and you can see it, you can be it. It is up to us to set the agenda and show we are capable and many of us do that. That does not mean we have to put up with everything that comes our way.

Yesterday, I attended a presentation in the audiovisual room given by young carers and young adult carers and I was moved to tears. For almost an hour I listened to four young people as young as 13 years of age up to one young man who was 19. They spoke about how they take care of their siblings who are profoundly disabled or profoundly autistic or their parents who were in need of care and completely disabled, while they attended school, did the housework, made the dinner, worked at weekends and attended college, all without support. That is one of things that most resonates with me on International Women's Day. We must ensure our children have the childhood they deserve and if there are complications we should support them, not ignore them as though they are someone else's problem. When there is a difficulty in a family and a child needs a Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, grant in a way that is not normal, we should have the capacity to make an exception. When children have mobile phones in school because their mother has had a heart operation, teachers should understand that is why they have the mobile phones and not take it from them reducing them to tears. We must be educated about what it means to be a child under pressure without support. If we do not understand, we will fail not only as women, but as politicians.

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