Frances Fitzgerald (Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate and the many people in the Visitors Gallery who have a particular interest in this topic, including representatives of the National Women's Council, UCD women graduates and others. I congratulate the Minister of State on her new appointment and welcome her commitment to this issue. She will have an important role to play in monitoring developments during her time in office. I wish her luck.

The participation of women in politics is an issue, in respect of which we have singularly failed to achieve critical mass. In the Seanad there is a 20% female participation rate which is higher than that for the Dáil, which is to be welcomed. However, if the level of progress made in Ireland is compared to that in other countries, clearly we are at a standstill. Who cares? Does it matter? If it does, why has action not been taken? Who will take action and when will they do so? What action will be taken? There really is no mystery about the low participation rate of women in Irish politics. We know the reasons; what is missing is action.

I congratulate Senators Bacik and McDonald who have been involved in compiling the report by the sub-committee of the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence, Equality and Women's Rights. The report is a clear statement of the problem and the action that needs to be taken. It is about implementation, monitoring and evaluation of what is being done. That is the only way we can move forward.

This is a critical time in the empowerment of women in Ireland and abroad. I say this because many of our systems have been seen to fail during the current economic crisis. So many of our management and regulatory systems have failed. It is critical that women are involved in rebuilding the country and national and international regulatory systems. We need to discuss ways by which this can be done. Given the absence of women at senior decision-making levels, there is a need for action to change this.

The emerging problem of global poverty will have a huge impact on development programmes which will, in turn, impact on the support that can be given to women and families in the countries affected. The US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, recently spoke about the importance of the empowerment of women in democracies being critical for the security of the world. She is right.

Great progress has been made in the broader mechanisms to improve the participation of women in various fields. I do not have time to go into them, but I welcome the national action plans put in place, as well as the European plans and the changes at the United Nations. We can see that the campaign on 16 days of action on the issue of violence against women has become a worldwide phenomenon and its aims have been incorporated into national activity. The number of women gaining access to the different levels of education in this country has grown dramatically; there are female participation rates of up to 80% in courses such as medicine and veterinary medicine. Certain barriers have been removed. Legislative action has improved in dealing with discrimination, but many issues remain to be dealt with, including women's participation in politics.

I recently read a review in the Times Literary Supplement of a new book on sexism and women, Living Dolls. The review stated:

During the final decade of the last century, it was predicted that the small proportion of women wielding power would soon form a critical mass, with the result that equality would be swift and sure. All constraints on women would then be relegated, like the corset and bustle, to quaint museum exhibits. But while girls were marching to the public tune of progress, they were starving themselves in submission to an unrealistic physical ideal and the century ended with a UK Government body image summit attacking widespread media promotion of unrealistic narrow ideals of feminine beauty.

That is still the context which faces many women in the world today.

The recently published report identifies key areas in respect of women's participation in politics. I want to focus on one, namely, quotas and positive action. The report concludes that without positive action, we will not see increased numbers. We have seen this in Ireland in the last 15 years. What positive action do we need to take? The United Nations has consistently stated quotas are a temporary measure that need to be taken in countries where the participation rate of women is not improving or changing. One could argue that applies to Ireland. There is no doubt we have an unfinished democracy, given the low participation rate of women in politics. There is still work to be done in this regard. I refer to some of the countries that have passed legislation concerning candidate quotas. There is a gender quota of 30% in Spain, 33% in Portugal, 35% in Slovenia, and 50% in France and Belgium. The enactment of quotas in those countries has made a difference. In Spain, women's representation in parliament has risen from 28% in 2000, before the passing of the quota law, to 36% in 2008. In Belgium, the number of women members of parliament has increased from 12% in 1995 to 37% in 2007. In France, the application of the parity law to municipal elections increased women's representation from 26% in 1995 to 49% in 2008.

I recently met some members of the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly and was interested to see the progress that had been made there. The representatives included young women who had been chosen under a system whereby every second person nominated was female. It is quite clear therefore that positive action of this type has worked in many countries. The question for those who argue against quotas is to define what else works. There is an onus on those opposing a quota system to produce the evidence and show what other mechanisms will work in Ireland today.

The other mechanism we can use involves voluntary targets and quotas as well as positive action within political parties. I would like to see the committee's work being continued with, for example, the general secretaries of political parties being asked to spell out their actions on this issue and how they intend to deal with it. It is important to monitor and evaluate the actions that are being taken because if that is not done, one will be at a standstill. Most Irish political parties have taken quite a lot of action in this regard, including the introduction of equality programmes, equality officers and targets. For example, the number of women in Fine Gael contesting the last local elections and winning seats increased dramatically after a positive action programme in our party. If we increase the numbers at local level we will find that more women will be elected at national level as well. We must focus attention on those areas so that we can rapidly make the necessary breakthrough.

A mechanism should be found to examine this report's recommendations and monitor them. If we seek progress reports in the short to medium-term, we could begin to see changes. We will need strong, positive action from all political parties, however, if this situation is to change.

I said earlier that there is no mystery about why we do not have more women in politics, and candidate selection is one of the key reasons. We will have to pay greater attention to that matter. Throughout the country, all parties will have to work on getting more women selected where vacancies arise and new candidates are sought to run for election. It is not acceptable that the electorate has had no chance of supporting a woman candidate in so many constituencies. From the voters' viewpoint, there were many constituencies where there was no gender choice, so they could not vote for a woman.

As the report said, there is no mystery about the absence of women in politics. It centres on child care, cash, confidence, culture and candidate selection. The Minister of State asked if women were interested in becoming involved in politics and I believe they are, in all the political parties. As Senators know, selection conventions are hotly contested by men and women who are interested in being selected by various political parties. The level of interest is not a problem. It is more an issue of candidate selection.

I was going to say that child care had greatly improved in this country, but it depends what one compares it with. We still do not have the comprehensive child care system that women in Sweden, Norway and Denmark take for granted. They offer support systems to all families in those Scandinavian countries, but we still have a quite a way to go in that respect.

It is good to have greater transparency and accountability when it comes to funding political parties. The more accountability and transparency we have, the more it will help all candidates. It certainly helps women candidates because it means the whole area is more open than it used to be. It is also the right thing to do.

The quota issue has created the most progress worldwide, so it is worth devoting some time to discussing it. The report asks whether quotas are discriminatory and it includes a good description of the quota system. In many ways quotas are making up for past discrimination, which is an interesting way to consider such a system. I refer Members to the report's details on quotas, including the arguments for and against.

I note the questions put to the relevant Oireachtas committee by representatives of the National Women's Council who presented their views on this matter. The key question was what other means one would use to increase the number and diversity of women in the Dáil and Government at national and local levels. That is the key question that has to be answered.