Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I also welcome this piece of legislation. I agree with Senator Boyhan and others that a lot has been achieved in the past two years. Sadly, very little was achieved in previous years so he was starting from a very low base, but this is very welcome, as are the other measures.

I support Senator Moynihan's view that we need a much broader debate on maternity leave across the public sector, in politics and every other aspect of society. We must do much more to get minority, diverse and disabled voices into local government as well. Unfortunately, there are not nearly enough people with declared disabilities in local government. If people with disabilities get elected to local government there is a better chance they will become Members of the Oireachtas. That is the route I came. I was lucky enough to get elected to local government. I spent eight years there and I made the transition to this House. That would not have happened had I not been a member of Clare County Council. The more we do on the ground to support people from minority backgrounds, Traveller backgrounds, ethnic backgrounds and people with disabilities, to become members of county councils, the better chance we will have of more diverse, equal and representative Seanad and Dáil Chambers.

The Minister of State must consider a lot of measures. He must consider providing grants for people with disabilities so that they have a level playing pitch and can campaign. There are people who use wheelchairs and other aids to assist them, people who cannot drive and who are automatically at a disadvantage when it comes to campaigning, before they ever get onto a ballot paper and get elected.

The Minister of State must seriously consider a diversity quota of 10%. Approximately 10% of the population have a disability. Probably another 5% to 10% come from a minority background. If we even started with a 10% quota and that political parties would have to run 10% of their candidates from a diverse, minority, disability background, it would end up producing a result.

This is a very welcome piece of legislation and I commend the Minister of State on it.