Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the MEPs for being here. I say a special thank you to Ms Fitzgerald for the work she did with me when I was trying to get the waiver on VAT on period products to alleviate period poverty. Last week the gender equality index was published by the European Institute for Gender Equality. Ireland fared quite badly in that, particularly women in decision-making positions. We saw 58.4% out of 100 regarding the representation in the Dáil. I image we would fare a lot better if it was based on the Seanad. There are other sectors such as business, media and sport. Deputy Emer Higgins brought forward a Private Members' Bill looking at gender balance on company boards. The European Commission has put forward a similar women on boards directive, but the results are painfully slow. What do our MEPs think the EU can do to improve gender equality?