Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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7. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the events in his Department to mark International Women's Day; and the measures he has taken to improve gender equality in his Department. [11058/23]

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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8. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the events in his Department to mark International Women's Day; and the measures he has taken to improve gender equality in his Department. [12705/23]

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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9. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the events in his Department to mark International Women's Day; and the measures he has taken to improve gender equality in his Department. [12655/23]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 7 to 9, inclusive, together.

International Women's Day is marked annually on 8 March and is an important day for recognising the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women in Ireland and women around the world. It is a day to honour the contributions of women, as well as to advocate for greater gender equality and women's rights. The campaign theme for this year was: “Embrace Equity: equity isn't just nice-to-have; it's a requirement". The Department of the Taoiseach actively encouraged staff to attend a range of events to mark International Women’s Day 2023, including the Civil Service lead webinar: Stronger Together - Real Equality Works for Everyone.

The Government is committed to responding to the matters raised by the citizens’ assembly and the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Gender Equality, and empowering women and girls. As part of the response, and on International Women’s Day, the Government agreed that referendums would be held in November 2023 to amend the Constitution as recommended by the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality and the special Oireachtas Joint Committee on Gender Equality. This will begin with an interdepartmental process to determine the policy scope of the referendums and to develop policy recommendations for consideration by Government, which held its first meeting yesterday. I want Ireland to be a world leader on gender equality. Until we have full equality between men and women, that is parity, we are a Republic unfinished.

We have already implemented new gender pay gap legislation, with many public and private organisations publishing their first gender pay gap reports, as required under the legislation in 2022. This has brought much-needed visibility and transparency to the gap that still exists in pay levels between men and women in most companies and organisations. We are also increasing parent’s leave so that both parents can spend more time with their children in those vital early years. The gender quota for candidates has increased to 40% for Dáil elections and the Government has agreed to introduce legislation to provide greater gender balance on corporate boards ahead of the EU deadline of 2026. We have also commenced the drafting of legislation to create a new statutory agency dedicated to dealing with and reducing domestic, sexual and gender-based violence.

The Department of the Taoiseach is committed to a policy of equal opportunities for all staff and recognises that a more diverse workforce, helped by an inclusive culture, can improve organisational capacity, boosting creativity and innovation and lead to better decision-making. The Department offers a range of flexible working arrangements to all staff, including shorter working weeks and blended working arrangements. It also offers additional assistance to all staff in career development and the opportunity to pursue promotional opportunities throughout their employment journeys. The Department will also continue to review its actions to improve gender equality to smooth career progression and to promote more women to senior positions.

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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I welcome the announcement the Taoiseach made on International Women's Day that the Government will hold a gender equality referendum in November, and I welcome his commitment that the proposals will be published by the end of June. Can the Taoiseach confirm that the proposals for the referendum will be aligned with the recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality and that the wording that we on the Joint Committee on Gender Equality agreed on a cross-party basis will be under active consideration in forming the basis for that important referendum this year?

Second, I ask the Taoiseach about recommendation 8 of our committee's report, which took up the citizens' assembly proposal that over the next decade Ireland should move to a publicly-funded, accessible and regulated model of quality and affordable early years childcare and education. We are conscious that there is a chronic shortage of childcare places and many parents are struggling to find a place. They need a State guarantee that every child will be assigned an early years education and childcare place. We recognise that the Government has taken measures to improve affordability and the cross-party report also recognised that but the lack of places available and the lack of affordability of places in childcare and early years facilities is having a detrimental impact on women and on women's workplace and employment opportunities in particular. I am asking for some clarification on the referendum and on the Government's proposals for childcare.

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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It was so important to mark International Women's Day on 8 March and it is critically important that we ensure significant and meaningful participation at every level of society. I call on all women to explore politics and to have a seat at the decision-making table, whether that is in their local club, school, the county council or even in these Houses of the Parliament. One of the issues I brought up on that day, which I was so disappointed to hear about, is that nine counties in Ireland have no women's refuge. I am passionate about a women's refuge for Carlow. I know a lot of work has been done, I know a lot of the stakeholders are meeting and I meet them regularly. Tusla has approved an external consultant but it is critically important that Carlow gets a women's refuge, as it is for the other eight counties that do not have one. We cannot be in a position where any county does not have a women's refuge. I have spoken to the Minister for Justice and the Tánaiste on this and I will continue to do so. Timing is critical in this and we must get our women's refuge in Carlow delivered as soon as possible.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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I want to add to that contribution in the same vein. The Minister for Justice commissioned an independent study into familicide and domestic homicide almost four years ago. The fair procedure strand of that process was concluded before the study was submitted to the Minister last summer but the report is still on the desk unpublished. The programme for Government, as the Taoiseach knows, commits to legislating to introduce domestic homicide reviews. A system such as this was established in the North in 2020 and a similar process has been in place in Britain for more than a decade. It is a valuable tool, not just to assess what happened but to prevent traumatic events such as this. We have one of the highest rates of domestic abuse and femicide in Europe, yet I see no urgency from Government in meeting the commitment to introduce this critical tool. When will this study be published and when will the legislation be advanced?

I might raise a second issue. I have raised the issue of boarded-out children and catering for them under the redress scheme. I am minded of Derek Leinster, who had an experience of the Bethany Home in Rathgar, a Protestant institution. Unspeakable cruelty took place in that institution and there were unbelievable mortality rates among very young children there, which was horrific. Like Derek, many of them were boarded out. Derek died last November and lots of us knew him really well as he was a great campaigner. He always felt left behind on two counts, first, because he was boarded out and brutalised on the watch of the State, and yet that experience has been given lip service and nothing else. Second, he was a Protestant citizen and there was always a niggling suspicion in his mind and in the minds of others who came through that institution, that somehow they were lesser.

There are many shortcomings with the redress scheme, for example this six-month rule is just abhorrent and obnoxious. I urge again that this issue of children who were boarded out and brutalised and the issue of Bethany Home in my own home neighbourhood and in Deputy Bacik's constituency, will not be glossed over.

These questions and issues do not go away. Such was the nature of the trauma young children and babies experienced. I thank an Cathaoirleach Gníomhach for his indulgence.

Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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There are two other Deputies but we have only six minutes left. I ask them to please be brief so the Taoiseach can respond.

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I will be brief. I would like the Taoiseach to comment on the recently published report on stalking and harassment put together by the two doctors in UCC. It was widely publicised and was inspired by the bravery of Una Ring and Eve McDowell. There were ten recommendations in that report. They include training and education for gardaí and a new wording on stalking offences. Do we have a plan to train and educate gardaí on stalking and harassment? As recently as last week, I met a woman who works in Dublin 8 and has been seriously stalked, frightened and threatened. Every time she goes to the Garda she feels it is a case of #IDoNotBelieveHer because the gardaí ignore her and tell her she is imagining things. This is a serious problem. It is also a serious problem that if and when these perpetrators are jailed for a crime of harassment or stalking, they eventually get out of prison while the victims are left at home worrying about the situation. There are a whole load of unanswered questions in this regard. I commend the report. It has done a fabulous job on a problem that needs to be looked at. I would like to hear the Taoiseach's comments on it. I am sure he is aware of it and his Department has probably looked at it. If not, the Department of Justice must have.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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At the International Women's Day protest, one of the biggest issues of concern to people was the housing crisis. We have had extensive debate about the Government's decision to lift the eviction ban. One of the features of those who are going into homelessness is how many of them are women and children and the impact that has on children. I will give the Taoiseach an example. What are people like this supposed to do? Is anything going to change? I have a constituent who is four years in emergency accommodation with her son. They have been in one room together for four years. That child, whose mental health is on the floor, has been in emergency accommodation since he was about eight and is still in the same single room with his mother at the age of 12. You can imagine how difficult that makes bringing friends around and what that does to his mental health. This woman actually works with vulnerable people in Tusla but she was knocked off the list because she is over the threshold. She has now been told she is not getting her time back because it was a little before the 14 months, which has turned out to be 13 and a half months. This is the kind of stuff people have to deal with. I just looked at an advertisement for Cherrywood, for the two-bedroom apartment she might look to live in. It is the biggest residential development in our area. Does the Taoiseach know how much those apartments are being advertised for today? The rents are €2,600 a month. What is she supposed to do? I am genuinely asking. This does not even relate to the eviction ban debate because she is in homeless accommodation. What is she supposed to do to get out of that situation?

Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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We have two minutes left. If the Taoiseach strays over that, it will take time from the next slot.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Okay. Deputy Bacik asked about the interdepartmental group on the referendum, which met for the first time in the last few days. I have the report and the minutes from the meeting on my desk. Like many things on my desk, I have not had a chance to look at them just yet but I hope to do so in the next few days. It is my expectation that the group will follow, or at least seek to follow, the recommendations of the joint committee and that that will be the basis for what we decide to do. That would involve looking at the three areas of an equality amendment, the definition of family in our Constitution and how we properly recognise care in our Constitution. Whether it will be one referendum or two, or possibly three, has not been figured out yet. Crucially, we need to figure out the correct wording, how it might be interpreted by the courts and what enabling legislation might be required to realise that constitutional change. While it is not always the case with referendums, we would often publish the enabling legislation that would become possible because of the change to the Constitution. It is important to get referendums right. We want these to pass and we want to make sure we are able to answer any questions that arise or rebut any extraneous issues that are thrown into the mix, which so often happens in referendums.

With regard to childcare and early years education, the Government has four priorities. The first is to reduce the cost. We reduced the cost this year and I hope, public finances permitting, that we will be able to reduce the cost for parents again next year. Second, increasing capacity is a real challenge. There are lots of cases of parents in my constituency who are struggling to get childcare places at all, particularly for babies. The third priority is quality. We are raising quality all the time because this is not just childcare; it is also early years education. Fourth is improving the terms and conditions and pay of the staff who work in the sector and making sure it is an attractive career choice.

It would be a good idea to do a pilot of a publicly-provided childcare and early years system. Many people coming from an ideological point of view will always take the view that a publicly-provided service must be better than a privately-provided service. I would point to our health service and how well our GP and pharmacy services work even though they are privately provided. It is not always the case that something that is publicly provided is better than something that is privately provided and our health service is an example of that. It would be worth doing the pilot to see how it measures up in terms of cost, quality, staffing and other issues.

I do not think a week passes where Deputy Murnane O'Connor does not raise issues pertaining to Carlow with me. She is certainly looking out for her county, as all Deputies do - some more than others. We have a multi-annual programme under way in relation to women's refuges. There are new places every year and around 90 will be provided this year. We need a better geographic spread, particularly identifying regions where there is no refuge. I am not sure when we will get to the point of having one in every county but that would certainly be desirable. I do not have an update on Carlow yet but I can certainly ask the Minister for Justice, Deputy Harris, or the Minister without Portfolio, Deputy McEntee, to provide that to the Deputy.

Regarding the wider issues that were raised about domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, DSGBV, last June the Government launched a new strategy to combat domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. It is an ambitious five-year programme of reform aimed at achieving a society that does not accept DSGBV or the attitudes that underpin it. It is a €363 million strategy and the accompanying implementation plan contains 144 detailed actions for implementation. Implementation will be underpinned by strong political oversight at central government level via the Cabinet committee on social affairs and public services. The strategy provides for the establishment of a statutory DSGBV agency under the aegis of the Department of Justice, which will drive this work and bring the expertise and focus needed. Education and awareness-raising are also part of the Government's fight against sexual and gender-based violence and we are working on national campaigns to raise awareness, including on the meaning of consent. Some of the main actions under the strategy include doubling the number of refuge spaces available in Ireland, which I mentioned earlier, national sexual violence and domestic violence prevalence studies to be conducted at five-year intervals, new legislation introducing a specific offence of non-fatal strangulation and a specific offence of stalking, which was referred to by Deputy Smith. I am aware of the report she mentioned and have seen the media coverage. I have not had a chance to read it yet but there will be a Government response to it in early course, most likely coming from the Minister for Justice.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Does the Taoiseach have any answer to my question?

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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It is very fair of the Deputy to ask the question he asked but as is so often the case when he raises individual cases in the Dáil, and I know they are real cases, it is very hard to comment on them without understanding all the detail. I have a constituency service too and get lots of housing queries - believe you me - and try to deal with them and help people as much as possible. You have to understand all the details. From what the Deputy said, I do not know all the details.

I think the Deputy may have said the person no longer qualifies for social housing. It is almost impossible for me to know what the options are without knowing all the facts and financial information and so on.