Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Guím Lá Idirnáisiúnta na mBan faoi mhaise ar gach duine. Is lá é le smaoineamh ar an dul chun cinn atá déanta, agus atá fós le déanamh, ag mná na hÉireann. I want to briefly talk about International Women's Day in Ukraine. It could be argued that war is one of the most gendered of experiences. While men in the main depart their homes to fight at the front lines, women and their children in general are left with few options - stand to protect their homes, organise resistance movements or flee. War visits particular suffering on women with the loss of their partners, homes, jobs, fathers, brothers, children and autonomy.

I read the United Nations Population Fund report on women's experience of war in Ukraine, which stated:

In the days since Russia launched a military offensive in Ukraine, the world has seen the photographs of women giving birth in underground metro stations and newborns hastily being moved to makeshift bomb shelters as health facilities become inaccessible or too damaged to function. An estimated 80,000 women will give birth in the next three months in Ukraine – many of them without access to critical maternal health care. For some, childbirth will be a life-threatening rather than a life-changing experience.

I was following the news earlier when the Ukrainian President reported that a child has allegedly died of dehydration in Mariupol, Ukraine. Today, I stand in solidarity with the women of Ukraine and all women who are affected by war in all nations. We, as a neutral nation, will have our role to play in this conflict. I ask Government Members today to fight to place the needs of women in the conflicts at the heart of that response. Perhaps it could be worth convening a discussion on that response in this House in the coming weeks. On International Women's Day, I say to Ukrainian women, and people living in Ireland and abroad, that we offer them our deepest solidarnist.

The second issue I wish to raise with regard to International Women's Day is that of Traveller and Roma women across the world. As Senator Flynn has put it to us, we must all stand up in this House as allies. I will read out some of the statistics on Traveller women, which are a real stain on our country. Traveller women die 11 and a half years younger, suicide rates are six times higher, only 1% of Travellers reach third level education and more than 80% are rearing children without water or toilets in their homes. In the words of Traveller activist Rosemary Maughan, whose handle on Twitter is @Minceirbeoir, this is "cultural genocide". On International Women's Day, therefore, we should and must be allies to all women. Our feminism must be intersectional and we need to tear those patriarchal structures down and karate-chop them back into the past, exactly where they belong.