Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish all my colleagues, the staff in Leinster House, all the people who support me and all the women in my life who made me the woman I am a very happy International Women's Day. I am thinking of my mother, my sister, my nieces, my best friends, my aunties and my grannies. We are all so lucky to have such people in our lives - well I am. I am completely biased about that because they are the women who stood with me, kicked me forward and told me to cop on and that I could do it. They also reined me in when I needed to be reined in. Most of us are really lucky to have one strong woman in our lives but I am very lucky to have a lot of strong women in my life.

When I was trying to think of what to say today, I struggled a bit when faced with the prospect of hoohahing about International Women's Day and saying "let's empower everyone." Some days I feel empowered, which is a contradiction in terms because I am a Member of this House so I should be empowered. Often as a woman, you feel let down. You think that it is relentless and that you are lost in the game. I left home this morning with one son sick and the other bawling crying because he did not want me to go to work or he did not want to go to school. You are pulled between all those things. You come up to Dublin and you are supposed to say "let's go; this is International Women's Day and it's fantastic" but some days it is not fantastic. We must all remember that not all days are fantastic for everybody. I think of all the women who are oblivious to this day. These are the women who are waking up today battered and bruised because of what happened last night, yesterday or the day before that. I am thinking of the women in direct provision who are sitting, are lost and are trying to rear their families. I am thinking of a woman who contacted me last week because she does not have a proper shower and proper running water for her family. It is all very relentless. We are all so privileged in this House to be standing here. I am thinking of carers. It is usually mammies and carers who appear every week before the Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters. They talk about how difficult it is. Why is it difficult? It is not difficult because they are women. Being a woman is not difficult. It is glorious being a woman. The difficulty comes from the society we have created. We do not look after our carers. Young family carers visited here yesterday. There are just not enough supports for them. I am not here to give out. I am reflecting my bias and my exhaustion. We have so much to be positive about but so much pulls us back. We are waiting for so much legislation. We are waiting for legislation on non-fatal strangulation and stalking and for tougher sentences. We are waiting on a register for domestic violence. It seems that we are waiting for so much when we do not have to wait for other things.

We had a very bizarre conversation last week at a meeting in the AV room on rare diseases. A very impressive lady from Crumlin spoke about how she has been waiting for room on the server in the HSE to upload the data for her patients because mothers are coming to her about their children who have rare diseases and they are waiting. We genetically test all our cows in this country. Teagasc has a great lab. During Covid, the Teagasc labs were used for humans but we wait for mammies to be able to get tested and to be able to test their children.We are waiting; we are constantly waiting.

I know the Minister is an incredible advocate for equity and equality for all but sometimes we are just fed up waiting. Today I am reflecting my melancholy in my speech because we are constantly waiting. We are supposed to be very happy, confident and empowered today but I am not, even though we got fantastic news yesterday. As someone who suffered from endometriosis, I was pleased to hear that sufferers will be supported in endometriosis clinics. There will also be lots of menopause clinics but we must be serious about change. We will have the referendum but I am afraid to say to all our male leaders that it will not change a thing. We will have leaders coming out and saying that it is terrible that women have been treated unequally and not respected for so long but a referendum will not change that. It is about policy and attitude and I just do not want to be waiting any longer.