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

Guím Lá Idirnáisiúnta na mBan sona ar gach éinne sa Teach. I wish everyone a happy International Women's Day. On behalf of the Labour Party, I am glad to mark International Women's Week and, in particular, International Women's Day on Friday. The need to mark it is self-evident because, while we have made great progress on women's rights in Ireland, we are of course mindful of the enormous suffering and discrimination that women continue to experience around the world, particularly in conflict zones such as Gaza and Ukraine.

Here in Ireland, we know sexual violence and violence in the family home continue to terrorise many women and children. We know there is much more to do regarding childcare provision, workplace equality for women and supports for women seeking to return to paid work.

Everyday sexism remains a real issue which reinforces dangerous stereotypes. Of course, here in the Dáil we still see far too few women representatives. Only 23% of TDs are women.

I am glad to see this debate today. I am glad also to mark it as a day on which we talk about intersectional discrimination because it is important to say that working-class women, women of a minority orientation, those of a migrant background or those who are disabled or transgender will experience a misogyny compounded by other forms of discrimination too.

I was disappointed last Thursday afternoon, when this House debated the recommendations of the report of the Joint Committee on Gender Equality, to see so few representatives in the Chamber. In fact, it is the same three groupings which are represented here today which were represented in the Chamber on Thursday. It was a shame because it was a missed opportunity to celebrate progress. It was good to hear from the Minister on Thursday that out of the 205 actions the report had outlined for Government to take in order to implement the recommendations of the citizens' assembly, 190 are under way, in progress or completed. Of course, a large portion of the actions recommended and of the citizens' assembly recommendations focused on care and social protection recognising the gendered aspect to care and to social protection.

We also should recognise the intersectional issues around care because while women overwhelmingly carry out care, many of those women who carry out care and, indeed, the men who are carers, are also disabled. Disabled people, in particular disabled women, are responsible for a huge portion of caring work in Ireland. It is one of the reasons the care and social protection recommendations in the report intersected so much.

In the week that is in it, I want to turn to the referendums on which we will be voting on Friday, as the Minister did, and to speak about the power of incremental change in these referendums. We in Labour are proud to support a "Yes" and "Yes" vote in both referendums on Friday. We believe it is important that we see a "Yes" to the family referendum to create a more inclusive definition of "family" to end the stigmatising of single-parent families, of cohabiting couples and of children born outside marriage - 40% of the children now in Ireland. We want to end that archaic reference to families as being only based on marriage and we want a "Yes" on family.

We also want a "Yes" on the care referendum to delete the outdated and sexist stereotyping of women that it involves in Article 41.2 and to replace that with a gender-neutral recognition of care. It is not perfect. It is not the definition of "care" that the Oireachtas committee recommended but it is a step forward. It is a progressive step. For Labour, we recognise progress over perfection. We recognise also that incremental change is important too. Before we got marriage equality, we had civil partnership. Before we got repeal of the eight amendment, we had changed the law relating to abortion through legislation. Before we got the law on divorce, and the current provision on divorce that we voted on in 2019 in that forgotten referendum, we had achieved a more limited form of divorce in the 1995 vote and before that we had achieved judicial separation. Sometimes incremental change has to happen in that way and that is one of the reasons we are supporting a "Yes" on care. It represents a progressive step forward from which we can build a more inclusive and more generous framework for care because we recognise how much needs to be done to support both those who provide care and those who receive it.

On the committee, we engaged with so many groups representing disabled persons and representing carers. We heard from them just how much needs to be done and just how short the system falls in terms of provision for carers and for those who receive care. We need to do a huge amount more, such as ratification of the Optional Protocol but also practical changes that can only come about through legislation and policy. We want to see a "Yes" on family and a "Yes" on care as a progressive step forward.

In terms of the debate on the "No" side, some of those on the "No" side have overstated the effect of the thirty-ninth amendment. They are talking about it as having an effect that it cannot possibly have. On my way here, I saw a poster saying, "Where there's a will, there is a durable relationship." It is a shocking slogan, and scaremongering. It reminded me of one during the divorce campaign in 1995 - "Hello Divorce... Bye Bye Daddy". We have to nail those myths. It is a myth to say that the family referendum will encroach on people's inheritance rights. It clearly will not. We have made changes on inheritance law that are already in place.

There are three things the family referendum will do. First, and importantly, it will create a symbolic recognition of family that is far more inclusive and that will not be discriminatory against those families that are not based on marriage. That is hugely important for all the single-parent families and the cohabiting couples - my own family among them until recently. It is hugely important we make that symbolic change. Second, it will provide a copper-fastening of the basis on which we have made existing changes, such as the 2015 child and family Act and the changes to succession law I have talked about, and it will guard against future rolling back by any future Government on legislation. Third, it will make it harder for the State to justify discrimination against non-marital couples. That is really what it will do. Beyond that, to say it will have other effects that are more serious or profound is to overstate the effect.

Equally, some of those on the "No" side have understated the effect of the fortieth amendment on care. We see it as an important step forward. As I said, it is not as big a step as we would have liked but it represents a progressive step forward.

On Friday, there is one way to vote if we want to see a more progressive Constitution and if we want to see a text that is more reflective of today's Ireland and more in keeping with contemporary reality, the wonderful diversity of family life, the wonderful potential for women to work and to fulfil roles outside the home, and the wonderful potential for us to build a really true valuing of care.

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