Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

That is something on which we would agree, as the Senator probably knows.

On the general point made in terms of equality, as Senator Bradford stated, as someone who has been involved in the equality area for as long as I can remember, my instinct tells me that as a woman I will not like this direct imposition but it is something that must happen. I am not happy about the cost of my insurance and that of all women increasing but in terms of equality it has to happen.

As Senator O'Keeffe rightly said, this is not simply an issue of gender in terms of insurance. There are other factors that must continue to be taken into account, namely, one's record on road safety, whether one has a no claims bonus for ten years and so on. We need to become blind to gender to a great extent. There will be exceptions in some cases in terms of the maternity aspect, for instance, and the obvious issues that directly affect one gender or the other. As I said in my contribution, breast cancer or prostate cancer are gender specific. We must be conscious of those and take them into account.

To refer to the education aspect and Senator Barrett's observation in terms of the leaving certificate, I have always believed that we have in-built biases that make us do things in certain areas that we would not intentionally do. It is not obvious that we are doing it but if we want true equality in regard to employment, for instance, there should be no indication of gender on curricula vitae, and it would be interesting to see who would be called for interview. In some instances the name of secondary schools on a CV will indicate whether the person is male or female.

In regard to Europe the equality agenda has been very good to this country.