Sharon Keogan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is very welcome. First, I extend my congratulations to all the women who were elected to both the Dáil and the Seanad in the recent election. I look forward to working with them all in the coming session and wish them all the best in their endeavours. In both Houses, we have the highest number of female Members elected in the history of the State. Here in the Seanad, nearly half of our Members are women, arguably making it the closest an Irish elected body has ever been to gender parity.

This coming International Women's Day will mark another anniversary, that is, the comprehensive defeat of the Government's attempt to eliminate women from the Constitution. This time last year, I and a few other Senators found we were low on voices in calling for the public to reject the Government's motion and thank God, the public answered. Luckily, while virtually the entire leadership of our political parties, nearly all of our Government sponsored NGO complex and the vast majority of the established media were gung ho to eliminate women from the Constitution, the Irish people themselves were not so easily fooled. However, now that the constitutional rights for women and carers are secured, we urgently need to move forward in making concrete improvements in their lives.

Some 90% of the carers in Ireland are women, and the current regulations on the carer's allowance are in many cases actively harming them. Recently, Meath County Council passed a motion from Councillor Carol Lennon for the 18.5 hour limit on work imposed on recipients of the carer's allowance to be disregarded for cases of study, education, training and volunteering. I call on the Government to heed this motion. The current work limits stop carers from being able to upskill by preventing them from pursuing continued education. This causes far too many women to miss out on years and even decades of professional development, meaning that by the time they return to the workforce, they do so at a considerably lower pay grade. The carer's allowance, while an invaluable lifeline, is not an adequate compensation for this. The Government must also finally deliver on its promise to abolish means testing for the carer's allowance as many carer's are married women who are already dependent on their spouse, and this means testing increases their dependency leaving them open to financial abuse. In short, when it comes to the position of women in Ireland, we can summarise today's situation with the adage - a lot done, and a lot more to do.

I understand the Minister had a meeting - I do not know if it was today or yesterday - with representatives from the Irish Pharmacy Union with regard to free hormone replacement therapy, HRT. All the women in the country were thinking this was going to be rolled out as part of the budget. It was all going to be free in January of this year. The perception was that women in Ireland would be getting this free. Could the Minister please let the women of Ireland know where that is at, the reason for the delay and when the roll-out will take place? I thank the Minister very much for joining us here today.