Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I rise to speak about the National Women's Council of Ireland. The Deputy Leader will be aware that its representatives had a briefing this morning for Oireachtas Members. I attended it, engaged with them and commend them on having a very good, meaningful one-to-one engagement with subgroups. It was very helpful and it was great to have that conversation.

A point that came across clearly to me at the engagement was the disconnect that exists sometimes between organisations such as this one and politics and policymakers. The issues they covered were a women's health action plan, for which it has strongly advocated, and reversing the cuts of crucial payments and services to women. I was particularly taken by their detailed analysis of the investment in social houses and greater security of tenure. They also tracked the figure for women and children who are homeless, which is an alarming and a growing issue for that organisation.

After having had some engagement with the representatives, it struck me that we need to see more women in local politics. All those to whom I spoke in one of the groups said the same thing. We need people of diverse views right across the various spectrums - young, old, straight, gay, bisexual, men, women - and to have a rich sense of diversity. It is important that all of that is represented in Parliament, be it the Seanad or the Dáil, and in local government. I posed the question to the people I spoke why there are not more such people. They cited the issue of childcare costs, of there being a male dominated cabal, as one woman described it, and how confidence was an issue for many women in terms of accessing policy within local authorities and in politics.

I would like to see how we, across the political spectrum and across all parties and none, can collaborate and work together in some way now. Let us not wait for another other five years but rather collaborate on this between now and the local elections in May. I am talking in terms of the next two to three months.I suggest to the Leader that we collaborate and look at how we might have a public campaign of engagement. We should have workshops up and down the country encouraging women to be involved in the political movement, whether in political parties or as independents. I put the idea out there. Perhaps we would all go away, collectively think about that, and see how we could get a more diverse mix in local politics and especially more women.