Ivana Bacik (Independent)

This legislation must be introduced as a matter of urgency. Experience elsewhere shows that, unless some quota is introduced, we will not change. The status quo has been stuck at 13%-14% of women's representation in the Dáil for a long time. The Seanad is better at 22%, 13 women out of 60, but the ranking on which we are being measured is done on the basis of the lower or single house of parliament.

The measures the committee proposed should apply not just to Dáil elections, but also to Seanad, local and European elections where our representation has fallen from 38% in the previous election to 25% in the last election. A system of financial penalties based on the French model should be imposed in the legislation. The legislation should have an in-built sunset clause whereby it would lapse once the targets were met.

As a concrete plan of action on foot of this report, I ask the Minister of State to propose a timeline for adopting the legislation. We know it has worked in other European countries, particularly Belgium and Spain where the rate of representation has increased from being more or less equal with ours in 1990 to being ranked 12th and 13th, respectively, in the world.

I will finish on Senator Fitzgerald's practical point. The preceding Minister of State, Deputy Moloney, committed to doing something similar. Will the current Minister of State, Deputy White, convene a meeting with the general secretaries of all political parties to put to them the report's recommendations, many of which are aimed at them, and ask them to revert to her within two or three months for a further meeting to determine what progress has been made? In addition to a timeline for the legislation and the review of the national women's strategy, I ask the Minister of State to take this issue up with the political parties as a matter of urgency. Otherwise, in the words of Liz O'Donnell before our committee, our democracy will remain unfinished and incomplete.