Kathleen Funchion urges childcare reform and gender equality action

Thank you Ceann Comhairle and I welcome the opportunity to discuss the recommendations of the Citizens Assembly on gender equality and I think it is important that we use every opportunity to discuss ways in which we can encourage and create pathways for more women to become involved whether it is in civic life, obviously afforded greater pay equality and then obviously for positions of leadership in both the public and private sector and in our submission to the Assembly we express the view that women themselves must be the ones that determine the solutions to dismantling the barriers they face and equally it was vital that migrant women, women from the LGBTQI plus community, carers, women outside the traditional workforce, caring for children, women with disabilities, traveller women to name but a few must be included in this process. So there are practical examples where government policy can positively challenge gender stereotypes. The Department of Education recently acknowledged that the gender gap at third level was heavily influenced by subject choices and as a result career guidance at second level was undertaken. This is a perfect example of where government can affect positive change. Despite some progress in the area as a country we still do have a long way to go and a recent OECD report on equality budgeting found that there is no overarching strategy or set of goals in Ireland and that it is difficult to judge if any of the goals being set by departments independently are having any real impact or meeting needs. I think we have made reference to that minister in relation to that minister in relation to the lack of data and hopefully that is something we are going to see change. The OECD set out really clear objectives and I certainly would like to see the government taking some of these recommendations on board. We were obviously supportive of the legislation and I am not sure if that is still going through the Dáil. I remember we had a debate in the Convention Centre in relation to that and obviously we engaged extensively with this legislation, the Justice Committee and then put forward a series of amendments to it. We believe that the Low Pay Commission has a vital role to play to tackle inequality and in work poverty which disproportionately affects women. I think we have seen that really in relation to Covid. over the last year and a half a lot of the key roles in terms of the early years sector, in terms of health care, nursing, you know predominantly women who are in very very low pay but doing extremely vital work and something that I think everybody, there is many of us that never took that for granted but I think everybody really saw how valuable that was over the last 18 months and why I think it is important that the public discourse has shifted in the last few decades and women who smashed glass ceilings are celebrated their and there must be more focussed on the struggle in reaching even junior management level or the gaps that negatively impact on career progression earnings and pension entitlements and that is something I suppose I have always been struck by in relation to pensions. because it is often women that maybe have to give up working outside the home and often through the cost of childcare or will end up, you know, taking parental leave for a day or two a week or whatever might be and all that sort of juggling and then realise at the end of that that has affected their pension and you don't generally, none of us really think about pensions until, you know, maybe later in life so that is something I think that does affect women. So, three of the 45 recommendations made by the Assembly include recommendations for constitutional change in the area of childcare and I would like to just take a few minutes to specifically mention the three of these in particular to a publicly funded accessible and regulated model of childcare over the next decade, increase the state share of GDP spent on childcare from the current 0.3% to at least 1% by no later than 2030 and paid leave for parents should cover the first year of a child's life. be non-transferable, provide loan parents with the same total leave period as a couple and be incentivised by increasing payment levels to encourage increased take-up and I think that is really important in relation to loan parents as well. We have obviously, you know, we have regularly had these discussions in relation to the early years in childcare sector and we have obviously would feel very strongly in relation to having a publicly funded model and looking at reducing fees for parents but also introducing a decent, you know, wage scale for those who are working in the sector. and then I know we often do talk about encouraging women back to work or maybe education but there isn't always the infrastructure to support it and in an early years in childcare survey survey that I actually did last year the one issue parents had and this was predominantly women was that they were simply locked out of work because they sometimes it was access in childcare because there wasn't a space available and sometimes it was the cost and sometimes it was both factors and I would imagine that cost is really is really, you know, the overriding factor and while it's the pandemic shone a light on this like never before I really think it took a lot. It probably took some men by surprise as to how vital this sector is to the economy. But I don't think that very many women were surprised by that. We have had situations where doctors, nurses, retail staff, carers and other vital frontline workers could not get to work because of childcare. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the work of the Assembly and their members and the Chair for the extensive work that they have undertaken on behalf of their fellow citizens. The role they have played in change in Ireland to be a better, more inclusive and fairer society for women is commendable and I thank them for that. And now, as you said, we must match their commitment by accepting their recommendations and implementing them without delay. Thank you. Thank you.