Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank speakers for their contributions today to this very important debate, which both celebrates and highlights the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women not just in Ireland but across the globe and highlights the challenges to achieving gender equality. International Women's Day has been celebrated since 1911. The theme for this year is accelerate action. It speaks volumes that despite women playing a full role in every aspect of Irish life, gender inequality continues to be persist and that we must once again strive for further action in this space.

Gender equality should not be an insurmountable goal but rather the real lived reality for all women across Ireland. The Government is committed to taking action to promote gender equality recognising the importance of ensuring that women of all ages get the same opportunity as men to achieve their potential and contribute to society. While progress has been made, challenges remain. Women are more likely than men to live in consistent poverty. Fewer women than men hold the most highly paid jobs. More women than men have a disability. While more Irish women go on to third-level education than men, when they finish their education and enter the workforce, they are not paid as well. The gender pay gap in Ireland stands at just over 9%. This means the average man earns 9% more than the average woman.

That said, progress has been made. We are investing more in women's healthcare and in tackling domestic and gender-based violence. A number of employment benefits have been introduced, including enhancements to maternity, paternity and parents' and adoptive benefit. Women have made significant strides in education with a surge in the number of young women taking up STEM subjects. The Government has taken a number of actions to support women's access to and progression in the workplace, including through legislation to support flexible working arrangements. The Government has also made a substantial investment in subsidised childcare and will work over the coming years to further reduce the cost for working families.

Members will be aware of the Government's commitment to focusing on disability and disability services and ensuring that all citizens are assisted in reaching their full potential and contributing to society. The programme for Government also commits to delivering and fully resourcing a national disability strategy, which is being developed. This builds on and cements a commitment in the last programme for Government to develop an implementation plan for the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. My officials are at a very advanced stage in the development of the strategy and publication is expected in the coming months. The next national disability strategy will operate as a framework for the co-ordination of disability policy across Government ensuring a whole-of-government approach to the advancement of the UNCRPD and collaboration on cross-cutting issues, including that of gender equality and the rights of women with disabilities. A key consideration for actions mooted under this strategy will be the additional difficulties that can arise for disabled people who may experience multiple forms of disadvantage or discrimination where being disabled overlaps with other aspects of their lives such as being from a minority ethnic community, their social class or indeed their gender. In maintaining this focus, the consultation process for the strategy has included targeted engagement with a range of stakeholders representing seldom heard from or otherwise marginalised groups, including those representing the perspective of disabled women and girls.

Care is a fundamental element of our society. We must acknowledge that women remain disproportionately responsible for unpaid care work and are overrepresented in lower-paid roles in the care sector. The programme for Government lays out actions to be taken to support such women - those who have caring responsibilities, those who work in care-related areas and women who have additional needs and find themselves in need of care. The Government is committed to increasing the income disregards for carer's allowance over its term with the ultimate goal of phasing out the means test completely. A number of workplace supports were introduced by the last Government aimed at supporting men and women with caring responsibilities. The work life balance Act made provision for the right to request flexible working for parents and carers and the right to request remote work for all employees to further support working families and those with caring responsibilities. The Act also brought five days of unpaid leave for medical care purposes for carers and parents. The programme for Government also commits to looking at additional workplace flexibility that could be introduced along with an extension to the current parents' leave and benefit entitlements.

As the Minister, Deputy Foley, mentioned in her opening statement, this year is the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action on gender equality. Since the last review, notable progress has been made. A new architecture has been put in place to address domestic and gender-based violence with the establishment of the new statutory agency Cuan to lead work in this area.

Reforms have also been introduced to the State pension system to give recognition to those whose work history includes an extended period of time outside the paid workplace. There has also been significant progress in the area of women's health, including the introduction of the free contraception scheme, the opening of specialist menopause clinics and fertility hubs. Ireland also submitted its response to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in November 2024 and in June, the committee will hold an in-person review of Ireland's record under the UN convention. We expect that the committee will put a focus on the diversity of women and the intersecting challenges they face.

As we all know, progress on women's rights is neither a straight road nor an easy one. As politicians, we must remember that we also have a role. As Minister of State with responsibility for disability, I am looking forward to the year ahead and working with Deputies from all sides of the House and colleagues across Departments to continue our momentum in delivering on progress towards gender equality, in particular for women and girls with disabilities. Progress in this area will benefit us all.

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