Ivana Bacik (Independent)

As we are about to celebrate the 90th anniversary of women voting for the first time in this country and the 90th anniversary of the election of Constance Markievicz as the first woman to be elected to the Dáil and as an MP, I call for a debate on gender equality. We have a particularly poor record of women's participation in the Oireachtas. With 13% in the Dáil, we rank at 87th internationally. I recently examined the overall number of seats filled since the election of Markievicz in 1918 and only 6% of the more than 6,000 Dáil and Seanad seats filled since then were filled by women. That is an appallingly low performance.

This House is an appropriate place to examine this matter as our record is better, with 21.7% female at present. We should have a debate on gender equality, the advancement of women in politics and ways in which we can improve the representation levels of women. Extensive research has been done and we know that child care, lack of access to cash and women's confidence are issues, as is the culture in which women are not advanced. These are the four "Cs". Two obvious recommendations this House could make are to improve the provision of child care and State supports for child care to give women a choice as to whether they will enter public life or stay in the home. or both.