Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have just lost 50% of the time I had, but that is okay. The Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, is welcome. We are in the same constituency but the Minister knows how much I value his work and the work he is doing. I know we are not supposed to say this because we are constituency rivals, but it is true.

I still believe that we are at a turning point of all of the reasons I got into politics, and we have an opportunity to address them here right now. I was working in an advertising and marketing agency. I was a business director and I was there for 15 years. I was pregnant with my second child and I wanted flexible work but I could not get it. I made the hard decision to leave a job into which I had invested so much. I became a stay-at-home mum for a few years, and I realised how difficult that is too. Even the tax system is against us. Days like International Women's Day are so important, and it is important that we highlight those. The Minister is aware how I feel about flexible working and the EU work directive. It should be universal. We should have a system such as the one in New Zealand, or be more like Finland. With the legislation that will soon be going through the Houses on the right to request remote work, I believe that the reasons to refuse should be reasonable. As it states in the heads of the Bill, the reasons for refusal should be reasonable and demonstrable. We need to see a culture change that has to be supported with employers. They need assistance through this. If we can invest in the digital transformation with SMEs because we recognise their productivity, then we need to be investing in digital transformation for remote work in the Digital First strategy, so that nobody gets left behind. I welcome that we are beginning to move on the the gender pay gap also.

Yesterday I and others attended an event with the Muslim Sisters of Éire. This is an incredible organisation. Obviously, there is a lot of attention on Ukraine at the moment, but at the same time we must support all refugees. We must ensure that the supports are there for all women and children who are affected by conflict. These are the most incredible women, many of whom have suffered themselves. They also suffer from the bias. There is a need the work that they do with soup kitchens and period poverty packs. It was fantastic to be with them on the day, not that it is not fantastic to be here too. We have so much work to do and I really hope we can pull together and do it.