Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House to speak about to us. This is ground-breaking legislation because it is about ensuring we get gender-balanced representation within our local authorities across the country. I know the Minister of State has done a mountain of work on this over the past year or two years. I very much appreciate the fact that there has been a consultation group, namely, the cross-party working group that was set up last year to ensure voices are heard, particularly of women, who are councillors and have faced these challenges.

As a councillor elected to Galway County Council, I was the first female coming into my Ballinasloe municipal district. That is not to say there are not excellent men - of course there are. There are excellent men in all walks of life. There are also excellent women and, unfortunately, their voices sometimes do not get heard.

We are making sure that the barriers are removed to ensure women will want to consider a life of public service. When you think about it, women would be the most natural representatives and a perfect fit for a role in public service when it comes to empathy, compassion, the care roles and the roles most women usually have from the experience of looking after children and their parents. This is across the board. We need to hear that voice.

Ireland lags behind in terms of female representation. It has been acknowledged at national and international level. We need to ensure we support women in many different ways. This is one measure the Government is taking now. The Minister of State has taken the reins along with his team and officials and looked at this. Having a co-optee - somebody who can come in on a temporary basis while a woman is out on maternity leave - is a really great way to operate. It is crucial for somebody on sick leave or extended sick leave.

There are probably far more ways this Government can support women. I know there are a lot of groups like Women For Election that support women to come forward. How do all public representatives and the Government engage at very young levels? How do we do this in transition year and when young men and women are going to college so that women are seen as natural leaders? We have taken big steps when it comes to boards of companies with the 30% rule. We have all the State boards on which we are seeking to ensure women are represented. These are decision makers and leaders. We need to see that start at a very young age. Our student councils are a great way of doing this. Our student councils are a fantastic way of bringing forward students at a young age to get experience of representing their schools.

I highlight the difference between urban and rural. We sometimes have far more female representatives from our city centres. There seems to be far more women who come through the natural process of county councils, bringing representatives for our large city centres. I do not know if that is the case in rural areas. Making that breakthrough is far more challenging in some of our smaller towns and rural constituencies. Speaking as someone from a rural area, I understand that there is a tradition in these areas. Even in my local area, there is a tradition of men taking the lead in our sports clubs. Perhaps people come into politics through a background in sports. They become leaders in that way, become well known and suddenly they are a natural fit for becoming a public representative. We also need to look at how we encourage, balance and support women in all walks of life, show them that more women can be public representatives and that it is a matter of pride and support women when they do that.

The challenge we sometimes face, and this is probably not within our remit, is making sure all doors are open when someone does come forward. When it comes to communication and social media, women can sometimes be targeted. Safeguards should be put in place for women in those situations.

I would love if we could have a review of this legislation in a year or two years time to see its impact. Are we seeing more women in the next local elections coming through? Will this be a real deal-breaker for some of them? I would also like to hear their feedback. It has been fantastic to see the work done by the Department.