Paul Bradford (Fine Gael)

I listened with interest to the Senator's sensible contribution. Six minutes is a ridiculously inadequate amount of time to speak on such important legislation. If we are trying to involve larger number of women and younger and older people in politics, we need to allow a space for debate. The system of politics itself needs to be reformed. In essence, the legislation before us comprises two Bills which deal with different issues, namely, the lack of female representation in politics and the funding of politics. Each of these issues requires substantive debate and I hope we will have an opportunity to expand on our thoughts on Committee Stage.

The Minister is attempting to make funding more accountable and transparent, which is welcome. My colleague from Sinn Féin asked that there be no corporate or outside funding of politics but, unfortunately, politics has to be paid for and if we do not fund political parties privately we will require the taxpayer to fund them. That would not be welcomed warmly. The Bill moves in the right direction towards a reasonable balance.

Most of the debate thus far has concentrated on the proposed 30% limit - I understand it is not deemed to be a gender quota. This represents a reasonable effort to encourage or facilitate women in becoming part of the political process, particularly at Oireachtas level. To reach that stage will require much more than candidate quotas or gender quotas. We need to consider the type of politics we practise in this country. We need to look at the place of work that Leinster House is and how it facilitates or fails to facilitate certain people. Senator Healy Eames's contribution was interesting in that respect. Our bizarre sitting hours and sitting days, and the way we do work in this House whereby the Dáil, the Seanad and several committees are sitting simultaneously, deputations are arriving, bells are ringing and meetings are being adjourned, would not encourage anybody into politics. I hope that in the course of the Minister's term in conjunction with his Government colleagues he will try to reform the way this House does its business, the way Leinster House does its business and how politics is run. It is not even a debating place at this stage or even a talking shop because we do not get much opportunity to talk. How we practise politics must be not just examined but also acted upon.

It is obviously very desirable that more women should offer themselves as candidates at election time and be elected. I am not sure what the solution is. I recently watched the film about Margaret Thatcher and I doubt whether she would have been a gender quota candidate. A few weeks ago I read a biography of the former Israeli Prime Minister, Golda Meir, who intervened to save Israel when it was being wiped off the map. I doubt if she would be a person who would have required a gender quota or a candidate quota. It is probably not the perfect solution - I do not know what the perfect solution is. I know the culture in this House and in politics in general regarding how women are treated, written about and discussed needs to be changed.

I never hear comments about how male colleagues dress or look. I am often bemused at the comments by female journalists about female politicians. These same female journalists, who are likely to give the Minister a standing ovation for introducing this sort of legislation, can write in very unusual terms about female politicians. If we want to have equality, there needs to be equality in how we talk and write about female politicians. In journalism colour pieces can be very funny, but I can remember down the years certain female politicians being described as "the lovely" this or that - almost a lovely girls competition. That kind of culture will not be resolved by having more women elected by virtue of a gender quota or a candidate quota. Our thinking will need to change and this legislation will not be enough in that regard. Again from a journalistic perspective the women who have been elected to this House down the years seem to be expected to have certain views and to sit on a certain place in the spectrum, and once they do so everybody is happy. However, if they think beyond the box of what women are supposed to do or say, suddenly everybody is upset.

Six minutes is completely inadequate to talk about anything substantive and I hope we can return to it on Committee Stage. That culture and thinking needs to be changed first and then we can start getting real results. I commend the Minister on doing his best to try to bring about a numbers change, but much more will be required if we want to bring about a culture change.