Results 3,281-3,300 of 11,854 for speaker:Ivana Bacik

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Report of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (Resumed) (13 Oct 2022)

Ivana Bacik: That is okay; nobody else is indicating to speak. A couple of colleagues want to contribute later and I also have some questions, but Senator O'Reilly may continue.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Report of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (Resumed) (13 Oct 2022)

Ivana Bacik: I thank the Senator. I thank everyone again for the clear outlines and proposals they have put forward. I have a long-standing interest in this area. I also read the 2009 report that we produced in the then Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women’s Rights, and to which Dr. Buckley referred, in which Ireland is described as an "unfinished democracy". At that point,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Report of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (Resumed) (13 Oct 2022)

Ivana Bacik: We can look back at the transcript but I think his point was that there are many more barriers that quotas alone cannot address. I think we all agree with that. Some of the barriers we ended up discussing at length were low pay and, as the witnesses outlined, the difficulty of juggling a full-time job in the case of many councillors, the supposedly part-time role of a councillor and family...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Report of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (Resumed) (13 Oct 2022)

Ivana Bacik: That is great. It is good to hear about the good practices that are going on.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Report of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (Resumed) (13 Oct 2022)

Ivana Bacik: I thank the witnesses for those full responses. We covered a lot of ground there. I call Senator Warfield.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Report of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (Resumed) (13 Oct 2022)

Ivana Bacik: We are very keen to investigate this point given that the citizens' assembly recommendation No. 20 was so clear on this issue so I thank Senator Warfield for raising that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Report of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (Resumed) (13 Oct 2022)

Ivana Bacik: It is great to get this clarity.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Report of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (Resumed) (13 Oct 2022)

Ivana Bacik: Dr. Buckley has addressed the point about the Seanad and may want to comment on this.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Report of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (Resumed) (13 Oct 2022)

Ivana Bacik: I also thank Dr. Buckley. We looked at Belgium in the 2009 report as she said. We modelled our proposal from legislation on its Smet-Tobback law. The reason we examined Belgium was because in 1990 Belgium and Ireland were ranked equally in the world but the difference was that we had stagnated whereas Belgium adopted a quota and moved rapidly up the rankings. It is very useful to hear the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Report of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (Resumed) (13 Oct 2022)

Ivana Bacik: That is a more optimistic note. The parties' views being different from the views of individual councillors might be an issue. Tying funding of political parties to performance in local elections could be done through legislative change. We looked at it back in 2012 when bringing in the original gender quota and we will examine this again because the citizens' assembly has been very clear....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Report of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (Resumed) (13 Oct 2022)

Ivana Bacik: It is important to say that the citizens' assembly has highlighted that in recommendation 24 and some of the witnesses touched on it earlier. I thank Senator O'Reilly for a very clear list of points.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Report of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (Resumed) (13 Oct 2022)

Ivana Bacik: Dr. Buckley's surname begins with B too.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Report of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (Resumed) (13 Oct 2022)

Ivana Bacik: I thank all the witnesses. We are drawing to a close. One non-committee member wishes to contribute. If all committee members have concluded their questioning I will invite Senator Boyhan to briefly contribute. I am sure I do not need to ask the Senator to stay within the remit of this committee and to respect the ruling of the Chair.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Report of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (Resumed) (13 Oct 2022)

Ivana Bacik: Is that an initiative of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Report of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (Resumed) (13 Oct 2022)

Ivana Bacik: Each of the groups might want to comment on the specific point Senator Boyhan raised about support for Independents. We have focused a lot on political parties.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Report of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (Resumed) (13 Oct 2022)

Ivana Bacik: That is very practical and important advice.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Report of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (Resumed) (13 Oct 2022)

Ivana Bacik: That certainly gives us another perspective. I thank our guests for their responses. I thank all of our witnesses for what has been a really interesting, stimulating and wide-ranging discussion that stayed within the remit of our recommendations, particularly 20, 23 and 24. We are very grateful for that. We have heard about the need to get to 50-50 by 2030. I remember when we had an...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality: Recommendations of the Report of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (Resumed) (13 Oct 2022)

Ivana Bacik: I will ask Dr. Buckley to respond to this because she touched on it in an earlier response. Then I will bring in See Her Elected.

Electricity Costs (Domestic Electricity Accounts) Emergency Measures and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (12 Oct 2022)

Ivana Bacik: I am glad to hear the matter is being kept under review and it is welcome that there will be a public information campaign specifically for renters. It may be that this will only apply to a small proportion of those for whom the credit is not being passed on to the person who is effectively paying the bill. The amendment is designed to address that scenario, even if it only applies to a...

Electricity Costs (Domestic Electricity Accounts) Emergency Measures and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages (12 Oct 2022)

Ivana Bacik: I move amendment No. 6: In page 5, between lines 17 and 18, to insert the following: “Final customer not occupier 3. (1) Where, in respect of a domestic electricity account, a person other than the final customer is liable to make payments to the final customer in respect of sums due under that account, the final customer shall ensure that the benefit of an electricity costs...