Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Níl mé ach chun cúpla focal gairid a rá. Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire chuig an díospóireacht ar an ábhar tábhachtach seo. I do not want to speak today because I can match, particularly experientially, any of the comments of my colleagues on this issue, with the possible exception of Senator Warfield. Throughout the horrible issues we have faced in recent months in this House, one of the things I have always said is that men must not step back from these issues. Men must centrally involve themselves. The danger is that only the female Members of the House will come down to speak in a discussion on International Women's Day. I wanted to contribute to the debate at that level. While many of these issues have come to the fore in the last number of months, we now know, if we did not before, that they have been there all the time.There has been this level of stress and intimidation of more than half of our society. It has largely been ignored. An acknowledgement of that is important with regard to breaking the bias.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the Women in Business Alliance lunch, which was organised by the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Chamber, in the Talbot Hotel, Stillorgan. Again, there are very few men at that. I could understand this because it was primarily female business leaders who attended, with more than 100 attendees. The strength of spirit and solidarity there was quite extraordinary. We had a number of talks from local business women who had so much experience and so much to say about various issues that are, in reality, not discussed enough. I thank Gabby Mallon for the invitation to be there. Even the people sitting either side of me at the table had so much experience and insight into how much further we have to go in fostering female business leadership in particular. I say this in the context of my own mother who is an entrepreneur. We did not realise when growing up that our mother was very much in a minority. She set up her own business in Dalkey in the 1980s and she continues to run her own business, albeit a different one now. There is a much used expression: "You cannot be it if you cannot see it.. My two younger sisters could definitely see it with my mother and there was never any question that she had any less of a right to go out to work and earn a crust crossed than my father did. I suspect that my mother contributed as much to the household as my father did.

As members of society perhaps we sometimes have that inherent bias because we see men in these roles and other roles, and there is a presumption therefore that this is the way it should be. Of course, that is not correct. In looking around the Chamber there are certainly colleagues who disprove that. My mother has disproven that. I had wanted to contribute to this debate in that respect.

The theme of International Women's Day this year was BreakTheBias. One of the things that we can contribute in this House is to constantly acknowledge the need for that equality. I had this conversation many years ago with Monica Barnes who was a Fine Gael Deputy for Dún Laoghaire. Monica Barnes was a very ardent supporter of women in politics, and I also counted her as a friend and a supporter. She was such a strong voice and was one of the co-founders of the Council for the Status of Women. She really articulated that voice back in the 1980s and the 1990s, when it was not a popular or an easy thing to say. Monica was a real pioneer and unfortunately is no longer with us. We remember her on days like this. In my contribution to the debate I just wanted to say how important it is for those of us who are not women to also contribute to the debate, to stand up, to agree, and - while paying homage is perhaps too dramatic a term - to put down the marker of respect for people who have been pioneers in this area. I congratulate them.