Following on the contribution of Deputy Barnes the former chairperson of the Joint Committee on Women's Rights, on which I served, I fully sympathise with the views she expressed on the golf clubs issue. I will refer to it later in my contribution.
The last time I had the opportunity to participate in a debate on the issue of equality between the sexes was less than a year ago when, as a backbench Teachta Dála, I contributed last April to Deputy Gay Mitchell's Private Members' Bill on the Eleventh Amendment of the Constitution. Deputies will be aware that this Bill sought to insert a new equality clause into Article 40 of the Constitution. In that debate, I concluded my remarks by saying:
Let us collectively take the best proposals from the many positive issues which have been referred to during this debate. In co-operation with the Second Commission on the Status of Women and the Office of the Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach, Deputy Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, who since her election to the Dáil has been constantly to the forefront in promoting equality for women and currently co-ordinates Government legislation in this area, we should get down to building on the progressive steps that have been undertaken by this Government and bring about real equality for women.
When I spoke at that time I little knew that I would myself now have the singular honour of performing the pivotal role of representing the concerns and interests of Irish women within the overall Government structure by occupying the same Office at the Department of the Taoiseach to which I refered last year. But while my status within this House has changed since that last debate, I am pleased to have the opportunity now to underline the consistency of my own views on the equality issue and to say that my response to Deputy Spring's Bill is exactly the same as that outlined in the earlier debate. The difference is, however — and I believe it is an important difference — that it is now open to me as Minister of State for Women's Affairs to make a full contribution in the combined effort to promote equality which I recommended last year.
The Bill before us has the objective of prohibiting discrimination on grounds of sex, marital or parental status, sexual orientation, religion, age, handicap, race, colour, nationality, or national or ethnic origins, including membership of the travelling community. Coming from the perspective of my responsibilities as Minister of State for Women's Affairs, my primary interest in the proposals before us lies, of course, in the question of discrimination between the sexes and I propose to concentrate my remarks on this subject. Indeed, I was interested to note from the debate in the House last evening that the contributions also concentrated on the issue of equality between the sexes.
I would like from the outset to acknowledge the fact that much thought and good research has been put into the proposals before the House this evening. Indeed, as a legislator committed to the principles of social justice and of equal opportunity for all our citizens, I can subscribe to the underlying philosophy of the Bill and confirm my personal empathy with its objectives.
What I do have problems with, and it is for this reason that I will be opposing the Bill, is the fact that I do not believe that these objectives can be achieved by the means now proposed by Deputy Spring in this Bill. My colleague, the Minister for Labour, Deputy Cowen, has in his contribution last night dealt in detail with the significant flaws in the Bill as drafted in so far as the amendments to our employment equality laws — and the crucial functions exercised by the Labour Court and the Employment Equality Agency which complement these laws — are concerned. I will not repeat the Minister's critique of these particular proposals, but propose to concentrate on broader issues.
As the explanatory memorandum to the Bill before us acknowledges, the Bill is far broader than that covered by existing legislation on discrimination. But it is the very fact that the Bill is so broad that presents problems for me as Minister of State for Women's Affairs.
My firm conviction is that the question of discrimination on grounds of sex is of such fundamental importance that it must be addressed in legislation in its own right. Women represent half of our population and women's concerns and interests should not, in my opinion, be addressed as a part of a catch-all measure which seeks to eliminate discrimination against a number of groups in our society. I have no hesitation in saying that all the groups cited in this Bill deserve the full protection of our laws against discriminatory acts. I would posit the view, however, that the odious discriminatory treatment of women in our society deserves a focused rather than a confused and blurred approach to its resolution.
I believe that if we were to address the very serious issue of discrimination on grounds of sex by way of Deputy Spring's proposals before us, we would quite simply lose the very focus of what I believe should be the primary and overriding priority of this Legislature — the promotion of equality and equal opportunities between the sexes. To the extent that discrimination against other groups in our society exists — groups which, I would emphasise, involve both women and men — I believe these issues can and indeed should be addressed by separate legislative and administrative arrangements.
In making this point, I would refer Deputy Spring to the arrangements which are in place in other jurisdictions to deal with the issue of discrimination against the categories of persons covered by this Bill. In Northern Ireland, for example, discrimination on grounds of sex is dealt with by the Equal Opportunities Commission, while there is the separate Fair Employment Agency to deal with religious discrimination. In Britain, the Equal Opportunities Commission are also the statutory agency dealing with discrimination on grounds of sex, but there is a separate Race Relations Commission to deal with racial discrimination.
While I have no detailed information available to me for other jurisdictions, the existence in Denmark of an Equal Status Council, in Portugal of a Commission on the Condition of Women, in Spain of an Institute for Women, in Greece of a Secretariat-General for Equality, in the Netherlands of an Emancipation Council, and, in Finland, of a Council for Equality, points to the fact that most western societies have acknowledged the need to address the question of equality between the sexes as a separate issue.
My information is that all of the equality bodies abroad which I have just now referred to have, to a greater or lesser extent, functions, which are similar to those currently exercised by our Employment Equality Agency. While I am not an exponent of a slavish copying of arrangements pertaining in other jurisdictions, I would nevertheless suggest to the promoters of this measure that there are compelling reasons to believe that, notwithstanding the bona fides of their intentions, the Bill as presented could in fact do a disservice to all our efforts to achieve equality between the sexes if it were to be enacted.
The Government decided not to oppose the introduction of this Bill because they were happy to give the House the opportunity to discuss discriminatory practices in our society and to place their own firm commitment to the principle of equality between the sexes on the record of the House.
I believe that any objective assessment of the structures which have been maintained or put in place to combat inequality between the sexes by this Government since taking office in 1989 would conclude that they are comprehensive and effective. These structures involve the explicit assignment by the Taoiseach to all Government Ministers of responsibility for the promotion of the status of Irish women within their own areas of responsibility; my appointment as Minister of State for Women's Affairs with the important task of complementing the activities of all Government Ministers and all Government Departments by exercising a monitoring and co-ordinating role on all aspects of Government policy as they affect women; the re-establishment of the Joint Committee on Women's Rights, on which I myself had the honour to serve — and I would remind the House that it was on the personal initiative of the Leader of Fianna Fáil in Opposition at the time, Deputy Haughey, that this committee were established in the first place in 1983; the establishment of the Second Commission on the Status of Women in November 1990; the progressive increase of the order of 24 per cent in the funding of the Employment Equality Agency since 1989; the continued funding of the Council for the Status of Women, which is the umbrella organisation for over 80 women's groups in Irish society and whose pivotal role as an effective lobby for women's concerns is recognised by this Government; indeed, it was in recognition of this role that the council obtained a 19 per cent increase in funding last year and that the 1991 grant has been repeated this year.
I believe it would be helpful to this debate to give the House some flavour of the types of initiatives which have been taken by this Government since 1989 in the equality area, initiatives which very often do not attract the attention they deserve. The types of initiatives I have in mind are: the increase in the number of women being appointed to the boards of State bodies from 225 in 1987 to 299 last October; the enactment in December 1990 of new legislation on rape which introduces new offences with more severe penalties and abolishes the martial exemption in relation to rape; the enactment of a pension Act in 1990 which provides that every pension scheme and every other scheme providing any kind of occupational benefits payable on termination of service or interruption of service by reason of sickness, shall comply with the principle of equality treatment; the enactment in 1991 of new legislation to protect part-time workers, the majority of whom are women; the continued promotion of equal opportunities in our educational system; measures include the existence of specific working groups within the Department of Education aimed at eliminating sexism and sex stereotyping in post primary schools and, with the same objective, the review of the primary curriculum handbook by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment; the introduction of a new carer's allowance in the 1990 budget payable in respect of certain relatives who care on a full-time basis at home for relatives who are permanently ill and elderly persons; the extension of the carer's allowance in the 1991 budget to include carers of recipients of disabled person's maintenance allowance; the special allocation of £0.5 million in the 1990 budget for programmes for women, which was repeated in 1991 and again this year; only last week, my colleague the Minister for Social Welfare invited applications for assistance for this year's scheme of grants for locally based women's groups, and I know that Deputies on all sides of the House have acknowledged the very worth-while benefits the scheme brings by way of seed funding to women's self-help groups; a special tax allowance for widowed parents with dependent children, to apply for the three years following that in which the spouse died, and the extension of payment of the higher rate of monthly child benefit to include the fourth child in each family.
What I have attempted to do in the foregoing is to give the House a flavour of the types of initiatives taken to promote the status of women in our society, but it is no more than a flavour, and I am happy to inform the House that I will — within two to three months at the outside — be in a position to publish and submit a detailed report on the equality initiatives taken by all Government Ministers and all Government Departments since September 1988. My predecessor, Deputy Geoghegan-Quinn, had published a first report covering initiatives up to that time. My first act when only recently appointed Minister of State with responsibility for women's affairs was to arrange for the priority publication of a second report and this is now in train.
In this connection, I am happy to anticipate criticism from the other side of the House which would point to the more than three-year time lag since the last report. In the debate last evening, Deputies Taylor and Barnes very rightly emphasised the crucial need to change attitudes if we are to promote de facto equality between the sexes. I fully agree with this viewpoint and I believe that one key component in the changing of attitudes and in sensitising all our citizens to equality issues is by means of communicating what is going on and what is being planned across the whole spectrum of Government activities. For this reason, I am happy to inform the House of my intention not only to publish a comprehensive overview of equality initiatives taken since 1988, but to continue this communication process by means of annual updates and publications for the future.
In the short time since I have been appointed to my office, I have also established a new tier or structure within the overall Government machinery. In my message to Irish women on the occasion of the United Nations International Women's Day last Sunday, I pledged to establish a strong and formal liaison with all Government Ministers and to ensure that the interests and concerns of Irish women are reflected in the schemes administered by them and the policy proposals being advanced by them. I also emphasised my willingness and commitment to act as an effective channel for conveying their considered views on issues across the Government system as a whole.
In order to give practical expression to the pledge I have made to Irish women, I have already established an interdepartmental committee on women's affairs, comprised of senior civil servants, who will serve to inform me of all policy initiatives being undertaken by Government Departments. In this way, I hope to be in a position to exercise a strong pro-active role in integrating the concerns and interests of women into all such initiatives as they proceed through the normal policy making steps of Government.
But, clearly, I can only exercise this role if I have the staff resources to support me. Here again, I think the House should accept the practical commitment of this Government to promote equality between the sexes as expressed by the fact that, since my appointment, the Taoiseach has increased the number of staff reporting to me specifically on women's issues by three. The Taoiseach himself announced this increase in staffing resources to the House on 25 February and I can inform the House that the extra staff involve an assistant principal officer, an administrative officer and an executive officer. I am confident that these additional resources will enable me to carry out my functions effectively and to the concrete benefit of Irish women over time.
In my remarks last year I spoke of the pivotal role which my office and the Second Commission on the Status of Women could play in securing the objectives which are now being sought by the Bill before us, in so far as discrimination between the sexes is concerned. I was disappointed to hear Deputy Taylor seriously downgrade the importance of the second commission in his contribution last night. Not alone do I believe that his remarks fly against the views of all women's groups in our society, who universally approved of the second commission's establishment in November 1990, but I also believe that the Deputy's allegations of inaction which, he implied, underpinned the establishment of the second commission simply do not stand up to scrutiny.
I say this because, almost uniquely in so far as the deliberations of Government commissions are concerned, the Second Commission on the Status of Women decided not to wait for their 18 months mandate to expire before putting their own stamp on the equality debate, the Second Commission published their first statement containing seven interim recommendations. These seven recommendations addressed issues of key concern to Irish women, including the ownership of the family home; the appointment of more women to State boards; equality proofing in memoranda submitted to Government; the withholding of national lottery funds from private sporting, social or recreational clubs which operate discriminatory policies; the appointment of a woman to the Top Level Appointments Committee for the most senior posts in the Civil Service; age limits; and sexism in primary education.
I think the House will agree with me when I say that Deputy Taylor, in suggesting that the Second Commission on the Status of Women was a receipe for inaction, was conveniently ignoring the fact that all seven interim recommendations of the commission were immediately accepted by this Government and are being progressively implemented, including the appointment of a woman to the Top Level Appointments Committee which is being pursued by the Taoiseach. In ignoring this reality, Deputy Taylor is not simply refusing to give the Government credit where credit is due. He is, in fact, performing a disservice to the second commission and to the wide range of expertise across all sections of our society which is represented on the second commission.
I would suggest to the House that, before deciding what elements of the Bill before us warrant our considered attention, what we need is precisely the considered opinion of the Second Commission on the Status of Women, having regard to the very expertise which is available within their membership. The very complex and wide-ranging Bill before us has already been submitted to the second commission by the Labour Party. The second commission is chaired by an eminent High Court judge, Justice Mella Carroll. They include among their ranks the chairwoman of the Employment Equality Agency, Catherine McGuinness, who is an eminent lawyer in her own right. They also include the chairwoman and chief executive of the Council for the Status of Women. The second commission are reporting not in two years time, but within a matter of some three months. They are charged in their terms of reference with the task of recommending the means by which women will be able to participate on equal terms and conditions with men in economic, social, political and cultural life.
For all these reasons, and particularly in view of the imminent report of the second commission, I suggest to the House that it would defy all reason to give serious consideration to this catch-all measure proposed by the Labour Party.
In my capacity as Minister of State for Women's Affairs I have no hesitation in saying that much remains to be done to secure real equality between the sexes, notwithstanding the structures put in place by this Government and the many initiatives taken by them since 1989. With the full support of the Taoiseach, I propose to use all the resources at my disposal to secure sustained progress in this area by ensuring that women's concerns, women's interests, women's aspirations and indeed women's apprehensions are conveyed across the Government system.
I agree with the contributions made last evening which emphasised the need for a change in attitudes; for more positive action in favour of women in the employment and other fields; for a greater recognition of the dual responsibilities of parents in the home; and for practical support for women wishing to return to the labour force by such means as the progressive provision of training and childcare. I will place a particular emphasis in my own work on these issues.
I unreservedly condemn the odious practice of many, but by no means all, private sporting and recreational clubs which, on the one hand, willingly accept subscriptions from women to bolster their financial resources while, on the other, offensively exclude these women from the option of full membership of their clubs. I believe that such a patronising stance is no longer tenable in an Ireland which is fast approaching the next millennium. It represents an affront not just to all women, but also to the vast majority of men who are committed to the principle of equality and who also take exception to the fact that certain forces in our society continue to deliberately restrict the opportunities available to their partners, their mothers, their daughters or their sisters.
In conclusion, I can inform the House that, last December, my office requested the advice of the Attorney General as to the status of Ireland's outstanding reservations to the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. One of these reservations refers to the question addressed by the Bill before us, namely discrimination in the field of goods, facilities and services, sports and other forms of recreational activity. I can assure the Deputies opposite that, if the Attorney's advice suggests that specific legislation is required in this area, I will be happy to bring forward proposals to Government for approval as a priority.
In the meantime, I am unable to support the Bill before us for the detailed reasons I have outlined in this contribution.