Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for her comprehensive reply. I also join my colleagues on this side of the House in complimenting Senator White, as the Minister of State has done, on her initiative in bringing this forward. It is rather interesting that while the main thrust of the Bill is about specific details, as discussed by the Minister of State and outlined by Senator White, the overall objective is not just about equality, but to try to encourage more women into work. Specifically, it is about ensuring that women in work will not have any obstacles in their advancement. There is a glass ceiling not alone for executive positions, but also with the pay issue right across all strata of society.

Notwithstanding the fact there are some technical issues outlined by the Minister of State that need correction, I am particularly pleased that the overall thrust of the Bill is being accepted. That will bring us in line with best practice in other parts of Europe. The Minister of State is correct in saying women have fought long and hard to get the rights they currently enjoy with maternal leave. Based on international statistics from across Europe, we were not unique in Ireland in the view that the nourishment of children from birth to early childhood years was the responsibility of the mother, with the father traditionally seen as the bread winner, but there have been considerable changes over the past 30 years in particular. I suggest that Mr. McCreevy's individualisation concept may have changed the system utterly. I do not know if a terrible beauty was born but I am not sure as much emphasis was placed on people who wished to have a working woman in the home as there was in getting women into the wider economy.

I often suspected that there was a great deal of pressure coming from the increasing number of multinationals coming into this country to get more and more women into the workforce, not always to the benefit of the nurturing of their children. I am not suggesting that all of that had anything to do with the anti-social problems we are currently experiencing, all the other aspects of marital life or the raising of children but certainly I do not think much thought was given to the social impact of individualisation.

I do not necessarily want to take up the time of the House in respect of this. My primary role was to support Senator White in putting forward this proposal and to hear the Minister of State's response. There are elements of her response that need further amplification. It is vitally important that the rights mothers currently enjoy would not be eroded in any way as a result of the initiative brought forward by Senator White. I do not think that this was what she intended to do. I will leave the House with the thought that this is as much about equality in the workforce as it is about the nurturing of children in the home. It will be interesting to get the views of the Government when Committee Stage of the Bill is reached and to hear how it will protect and encourage more women who are currently in the workforce to ensure there is more equality in the workforce as distinct from just looking after the needs of young children.

All of us know, particularly mothers, that the most critical part of a child's development is in the first two years. In that period of time, insofar as is possible, the mother needs to be with child and bond with it. Unfortunately, due to economic circumstances, that has changed. It goes back to the early part of the past ten or 15 years with the changes in the tax code. It was something I did not necessarily agree with at the time and I still do not agree with it. I still think it is important that the mother is with her children in those critical early years as much as is possible. At the same time, needs must and the economic realities that most families now face mean that where they can, both parents work so some sort of new system must be brought to bear to bring the father into the equation. That is the thrust of this Bill.