Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Like Senator Darragh O'Brien, I would like to have a debate on the Minister's plans for local government reform. However, I refute entirely the Senator's suggestion that the report is a sop to the Labour Party. This was agreed between the two coalition partners as part of the programme for Government. Proper local government reform is long overdue to ensure the system will be more efficient and have greater powers of subsidiarity and decision-making at local level and that will be greater representation at local level. I agree with the Senator that it is important that we debate the issue in the House. While I am not sure it needs to be debated on Thursday, I would like to see such a debate taking place in the coming weeks. We have a very important pre-budget debate on social welfare with the Minister for Social Protection arranged for Thursday. The report requires very careful reading and it is important that we have an informed debate on it in the House.

There is more to the report than simply reducing the number of councils or merging town councils in municipal districts. There are also some very important and radical measures proposed, for example, making arrangements to conduct business in a manner which would encourage greater participation by women in local politics. I am delighted to see that proposal because I have raised in the House the need to ensure parliaments are run in a gender sensitive way. This is part of an international movement. It is also true that local authorities must be run in a gender sensitive way. Another proposal envisages local authorities being funded through a new local property tax which would ensure local responsibility for decision-making and proper powers at local level. As I said, reform is long overdue. Some of the reforms have been mandated or are required in the light of the findings of the Mahon tribunal to ensure greater scrutiny and transparency in the planning process. The report, therefore, deserves a detailed and thorough debate. I agree that we should invite the Minister to come to the House in the coming weeks to engage with us before the legislation is produced.

I welcome the report commissioned by the Department of Social Protection on food poverty, although I do not welcome its findings, as I do not think anyone in the House does. However, it is very important that we are aware of the data covering the years 2009 and 2010 produced by safefood for the Department of Social Protection. The report makes for very worrying reading because it highlights a 3% increase in the number of people living in food poverty in these years. It finds that 10% of people were living in food poverty in 2010. We have to try to ensure targeted interventions by the Department of Social Protection and others to tackle this issue and ensure the groups most at risk are provided for. It is very useful that, at last, we have a proper, scientific measure of food poverty and the risk factors involved.

There was some good news today about the young Pakistani schoolgirl, Malala Yousafzai, who is an icon in terms of the education of young girls and who was shot, tragically, by the Taliban last week. She is making a good recovery in a hospital in England. We celebrated International Day of the Girl last week, but the plight of Malala and her colleagues who are just trying to receive an education in their own country and encountering huge resistance from very conservative elements reminds us of the need to fight for gender equality in education across the world.