Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State. Both of us survived our previous encounter on the high seas.

This has been a fascinating and exceptionally good debate which has focused on important issues. I concur with Senator Twomey in most of the points he made. I have seen identical developments in teaching. Twenty years ago, when people were arguing that teaching was about to become a female dominated profession, I remember asking what was wrong with such a scenario, as at least it would mean women would dominate one profession. Much has changed in the meantime. For example, no one even blinked when a woman became the general secretary of the Irish National Teachers Organisation for the first time. That is how matters should be.

The issue of quotas generates a great deal of heat and light. I have been involved in the argument about quotas for roughly 35 years in about 25 organisations and associations. While I do not agree with quotas as a matter of basic principle, they are critical in engineering change and needed as a transient measure to achieve a specific objective.

As Senator Twomey pointed out, the Oireachtas is a male club which will not change any time soon. If I did not live in Dublin, there is no way I would still be a Member of this House 23 years after joining it. For as long the media argue that the Houses should sit five days a week and that sittings continue into the night, sensible people will not become involved in politics.

The reason women did not apply for positions as principal teachers in many primary schools was that, having taken a good look at the job, they decided it was not for them. They may have agreed that more women should become school principals, but they decided not to take up the job because it was wrong for them.

While the term "family friendly" has become a cliché, what it means is that people should be able to have a balance in their lives. This is not possible in politics. One need only consider the efforts to establish a crèche in the Oireachtas - I cannot remember if we succeeded.