Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank all Senators for their very detailed, knowledge-based and passionate contributions to our debate today. I have a pre-prepared speech listing out all of the great things the Government has done over the past year, and the plans for the next year. I believe a couple of reflections might be a little bit more useful.

I was struck by Senator McGreehan saying that here we are asking for the same thing again. I was also struck by Senator Hoey's contribution about it feeling a bit hollow to stand up and talk about International Women's Day again. I reflect also that this is my second opportunity to address this House on International Women's Day. Hopefully, I will have that opportunity again in future years. We must ask, however, if there has been change. If there was one thing that has not changed in this area in the way I would like, and Senator O'Loughlin touched on this, it is around maternity leave and ensuring that we have maternity leave for Members of the Oireachtas also. There was a focus on this matter last year in the context of the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, and administrative arrangements were put in place. Another Member of the Oireachtas has since been pregnant and given birth. Similarly, and perhaps with even more impact, we must look to maternity leave for local authority members. This falls within the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Maternity leave for Oireachtas Members falls within my Department, and we are working on that. I am sorry that we have not advanced it further but it is important that we look at what has actually been done.

This brings us to the wider debate, on which Senator Higgins spoke, about incrementalism versus absolute systems change and the idea of smashing the table. I will not give any conclusion on that but I do believe that we can work towards both. In my life, and coming from a very small political party, for 25 years I have been used to the tap, tap, tapping away and making little changes. Sometimes one gets the opportunity to make the bigger change. I am thinking, for example in the area of climate and in our understanding of climate. That is where we are now and we have the chance to make a systems change in that regard. Similarly, there were other political campaigns such as those on LGBT+ rights and the marriage equality campaign. I remember as a member of the Green Party when we were in a previous Government introducing civil partnership legislation, which is something I felt very passionately about. It was not marriage equality, and I recognised that. My predecessor in this role, former Deputy Katherine Zappone, and her late wife Dr. Ann Louise Gilligan, were very critical of civil partnership yet I felt that it was an important incremental step that helped to deliver marriage equality. Then we took that sudden dramatic leap, which was a vote by the Irish public, in marriage equality. We can see this type of change also with the repeal of the eighth amendment campaign where many people worked on the issue of repeal for a very long time. We had some small incremental changes and then, suddenly, the big leap happened. There is a place for incrementalism and for systems change. I do not believe it has to be one or the other. I am not saying that anybody was suggesting that but this is about keeping our hopes up and realising that we are making things better.

Senator Currie spoke about the need for a turning point. I hope we are reaching a turning point in how we treat women and how we engage with women in our society. Even in the very short time that I have been in the Oireachtas this conversation has changed. Covid drove a change.Some incredibly tragic murders have driven a change in that but I suppose time will tell if we have reached that particular turning point.

The issue that many have touched on is the issue of women at the table. That is why I would come back to the whole local authority area, election to which is such an essential step to take in providing a platform for any future Member of the Oireachtas, but particularly any future female Member of the Oireachtas. Looking around, maybe one Member of this House here today is not a former councillor. Everyone else has come in through that local authority route. It is so important we support that, whether in the context of maternity leave or whatever.

Caucus groups are setting up in many local authorities. I met members of the Fingal women's caucus on Monday outside the House. They passed on a petition about increasing the amount of refuge space in the Fingal area which is something that many Senators have touched on.

We must do whatever we can to support female councillors, once they are elected but also in getting elected. As Senator Garvey said, every woman is as capable as every man. The Senator said she has to remind herself of that sometimes. Making provision for that and supporting the membership and participation of women in local authorities is so important and will make the change here.

Certainly, the gender quotas that we have introduced for general elections are something I would strongly favour bringing in for local elections as well. It causes a complication within parties, particularly bigger parties, but it is worth it in terms of getting that greater degree of representation.