Minister Shatter, Minister Lynch, Oireachtas Colleagues, Friends.
I was most anxious to be part of this great conference and I am delighted to have the opportunity to wish you well at the outset.
I speak to this conference as Taoiseach. My Party colleague, Minister Fergus O’ Dowd will speak later at the Round Table discussion from a Fine Gael Party perspective.
The Programme for National Recovery agreed between the two Government parties made specific commitments in relation to the greater engagement of women in decision-making, both on state boards and in political life.
Today we are concentrating on the important role women can play in political life.
You are no doubt aware that debate will start in the next few weeks on the provisions for candidate quotas. Parties will be required in the first instance to ensure that at least 30 per cent of their candidates are women or else their State funding support will be severely reduced. This comes into effect before the next General Election, so political parties are warned in advance.
I am pleased that this legislation will be enacted in our first year in Office. This is important for a number of reasons.
Firstly, we, Fine Gael and Labour together, wanted to show our commitment to this issue and the important contribution women can make in sharing power in political life.
Secondly, if we are to succeed in these objectives by 2016, we all need to start to work now towards that goal. Political parties, Women activists, Women candidates all have a role to play in this mission. That is what today is about. An opportunity to open the dialogue, face up to the challenges, begin to work together.
Thirdly, the next local elections in 2014 will provide an opportunity for everybody to nominate and put forward for election women candidates who, if elected, may then decide to contest the General Election in 2016. We are not laying down any conditions with regard to candidate quotas at local elections at this stage. However, it is widely recognised that many Dáil candidates get their first experiences of electoral office at local level, be it in town councils or county councils.
The enthusiasm in this room speaks for itself. This conference has attracted such interest that we have a second group listening to us in the La Touche Room. People know that real change is on the way and while people elect who they wish, the opportunities to elect women will be greater than ever before.
I know that the idea of quotas is always a cause of energetic debate . To those who challenge the concept, I will just point out that women have been voting in Ireland for over 90 years, but our system, has failed to provide the people with a higher and more appropriate representation by women in the Dáil and the Oireachtas. That’s a reason why, when we could influence this, a higher proportion of women were appointed by me to Seanad Eireann than ever before from the nominees of the Taoiseach. As Parties we will offer the electorate broader choices in the future and are committed to making that happen.
I know that other party leaders will be here later today. Unfortunately, I cannot participate in that discussion due to other commitments but today is not about inter-party rivalries. Today is about working together, across the spectrum, to achieve the objective of enabling the people to elect more women to the next Dáil. I hope that objective becomes a reality.
Speaking now to party leaders, I believe that the changes that we can create and influence in this matter can strengthen politics in Ireland. We may need to moderate our behaviours, we may need to ensure that meetings can accommodate the family responsibilities of our members.
But our Members are both men and women, both mums and dads. We need to look to the family needs of both. We have a good childcare service, but how many of my male colleagues have regretted the time away from their families? The baby’s first steps. We need to work together to find new ways of doing business for the benefit of all – men and women alike. Everybody makes sacrifices, but we can share those sacrifices by increasing the number of women in the House.
Today we have a Dáil with one female TD for every six male TDs. If the candidate quotas work and if the electorate respond to the candidates in the same way as they did in our last election, we will have more than one woman for every three men in the next Dáil. This will bring better decision-making. We know that men and women offer a range of equal skills and a range of complementary skills. The meshing of those skills will enhance the quality of our decision-making, of our laws, of our society.
The people do not elect women solely to represent women and women’s issues, no more than they elect men to represent men’s issues only. As we face the challenges ahead we want to bring both perspectives to the table.
This is the purpose of the new legislation. This is the purpose of the move to involve more women. This is the purpose of the step to greater democracy in Ireland where men and women share the decision-making roles in line with their capabilities and not in line with their gender.
Before I finish, I let me compliment Minister of State Kathleen Lynch and her team in the Gender Equality Division in Minister Shatter’s Department for taking the initiative to convene this significant event. This is without doubt an important first, positive step to the achievement of true gender equal democracy in Ireland.
Let us all work together to achieve that goal.