Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I express my solidarity with the women of Ukraine who have been forced to vacate their homes, communities and country. Ireland stands with them as a voice for peace, demilitarisation, freedom and democracy.

I am proud to serve on the Joint Committee on Gender Equality, which is united in purpose and clear on the message that there can be no delay in the implementation of the recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly on gender equality. It is clear also about the work on constitutional change that we will deal with, and about the work of Departments and the Attorney General. The work of preparing the referendums must happen in parallel with the work of the gender equality committee. I reiterate the three recommendations on constitutional change, for the record of the House:

Article 40.1 of the Constitution should be amended to refer explicitly to gender equality and non-discrimination.

Article 41 of the Constitution should be amended so that it would protect private and family life, with the protection afforded to the family not limited to the marital family.

Article 41.2 of the Constitution should be deleted and replaced with language that is not gender specific and obliges the State to take reasonable measures to support care within the home and wider community.

Members of the citizens' assembly were definitive in their recommendations and their urgency needs to be matched by urgency within the Government. Too often the State fails to tackle areas of public policy that disproportionately affect women. Childcare and social protection are just two examples, as is the provision of refuge places. Women pay the price for the unaffordable cost of childcare and they do so at the expense of their aspirations. Those working in early years education and childcare need to be given decent wages and conditions. When social protection measures are weakened, it is women and lone parents who shoulder the greatest burden.

When the next strategy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence is published, it must be fully resourced and urgently implemented. The crisis in refuge places has to be brought to an end. The State does not provide that service and that is incredible. Entire counties do not have a refuge for women fleeing domestic violence. Such women do not need just a bed; they also need wraparound services such as counselling and childcare.

In these dark times, I want our country to be a beacon of hope for people throughout the world, including the women of Ukraine, Palestine, Yemen, Syria and Afghanistan.I want Ireland to be a beacon of hope to transgender folks as well, as we once were. We need to double our efforts. We need transgender healthcare in this country, as it is a system that is failing transgender people. This was most recently articulated by the former CEO of the Transgender Equality Network of Ireland, Éirénne Carroll, who having come to the Ireland from the United States to take up the role as head of an NGO here in Ireland, faced harassment, physical assault on the streets of this city and verbal assault and was infantilised by our health system that denies basic care and surgery to transgender folks in this country. I hope she is healing back home. I hope that we can double our efforts in terms of transgender healthcare in this country because it is a scandal, considering we once were a beacon in terms of a self-determination model for transgender folks to recognise their true gender in law.

Those are some of the things I am thinking about during this International Women’s Week. I thank the Acting Chairperson for the time afforded me to contribute to the debate.