Ivana Bacik (Independent)

Given it is the last week and we are waiting for things to come from the Dáil, some difficulty was inevitable. I entirely agree, however, with levels of scrutiny of legislation on Committee Stage. This House has generally had a high standard of debate, particularly on Committee Stage, where we offer a higher level of scrutiny. That debate will be more common in the new year.

I am looking forward to a debate early in the new year on the electoral amendment (political funding) Bill. I was delighted to see it was approved by Cabinet yesterday and will be published this week. It is likely to start in the Seanad, something we should all welcome. The Seanad is the only House of the two that has ever had a debate on women's participation in politics. We had that debate in May 2010 on foot of the report I had authored for the justice committee on women's participation in politics, which recommended legislation requiring political parties to adopt a minimum proportion of candidates of each gender. I am delighted his Bill will now be introduced and that it will be done in the Seanad and I look forward to the debate in the new year. The international evidence is clear that unless we take positive steps and require political parties to adopt targets for the promotion of women in politics, we will not see any improvement in our poor figures for women's participation rates in politics. There was cross-party support in May 2010 when we debated the principle of positive action.

We all wish to send our sympathies to the families of the victims of the terrible massacre in the Belgian city of Liège yesterday. We will be debating foreign affairs early in the new year and we should discuss the massacre of civilians that has been occurring under the radar in Syria in recent months. Some dreadful reports are emerging, but very little is being reported of what is really happening because of the ban on foreign reportage. We might explore our foreign policy towards Syria when we have that debate.