Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is very welcome to the House. As she is my local Deputy, I congratulate her. It is the first time I have had the opportunity to do so since she was elevated to the post of Minister of State. The very fact that she is sitting here is testament to the fact that we are moving, albeit very slowly, to where we should be. As I look around this room, I wonder where my male colleagues are. There are not too many of them here. I reminds me of the day we introduced the Gender Recognition Bill. They literally climbed over one another to get out of the room before the discussion started. Clearly, there are some things men are not supposed to be involved in. As I look around, some of the most powerful women in Irish society are sitting around me. For as long as I can remember, one of them, Senator Bacik, has been an advocate for women and women's rights. I see Senator Higgins, who, again, is noted along with Senators Ruane and Kelleher. I could go on and name them all, including Senator McFadden, who is the Government Chief Whip, and my colleague from Carlow. They are all powerful women. The Acting Chairman, Senator Noone, took on one of the most difficult roles this country has had to face in a long time when she took over as Chairman of the Joint Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution so there are very powerful women here and I am deeply proud to know all of them.I fundamentally disagree with quotas. I always and ever did. I do not believe that in a perfect world we should have to have quotas. I have never seen women as needing to be equal. I grew up in a family of 11 and eight of them were girls. However, the woman I want to remember today is one of the strongest women I have ever known in my life. She epitomises the women of Ireland. The woman I am talking about is my mother, Maureen Craughwell.

My mother, despite the fact she was the mother of 11 children, always found time to be with me at the most important times of my life. She was with me when I was invested into the Boy Scouts, when I was passing out in the Army on both occasions, when I took my degree and when I took my postgraduate degree. All through my life my father was held supreme in the family. It was "Dad" this and "Dad" the other. Just before my mother died, I was driving to Galway to see her. Suddenly, all of the memories came back of where she was when I needed her. She was always there.

I am thankful to God that I got the opportunity to say to her before she died that she was the greatest influence in my life. My mother is just one of the thousands and millions of mothers around Ireland who do the same job every single day. It is the mothers of Ireland who give the girls of Ireland the courage to stand up and become the Senators who are in this House today or the Deputies down in the other House.

It is the mothers of Ireland who instill in their children the courage to get up and be the best they can. One hundred years on we should not be talking about suffrage. We should be looking at a Seanad that has 30 women and 30 men. We should be looking at a Dáil that is split down the middle. We should be looking at the distribution of power. It is happening slowly. Thankfully, in the trade union movement Ms Patricia King, is the leader of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU, and Sheila Nunan, is the leader of the Irish National Teachers Organisation. Women are slowly making their way in Irish society to where they deserve to be.

However, there is a requirement, and it falls back to labour, to make rules or regulations that make it easy for women to aspire or make their way into important roles. I refer to the example of my own trade union, prior to my entry into this House. We held meetings on a Friday in Dublin and they went on until five, six, or seven in the evening. It became impossible for women. I remember we had one single mother on the executive committee. She had two young daughters. She had to get home. Ultimately, she had to resign from that.

We have to be able to move meetings around the country so mothers are close to home if they need to be. I do not see any reason why the fathers should not be at home. We have to start finding ways of facilitating people. Every time I have visitors in this House, I bring them to that picture down the hall that shows all of the living female politicians. I think it was it was taken in 1998.