I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and his officials. I appreciate that the Minister of State has to leave the meeting at 4.20 p.m. We will, therefore endeavour to have him out of here as quickly as possible and we will try not to be too hard on him. I invite the Minister of State to make his presentation.
UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women: Ministerial Presentation.
I will make a short presentation about Ireland's combined fourth and fifth reports under the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and its significance in fulfilling Ireland's international gender equality obligations.
The last time we submitted a report to the UN was in 1997. As I understand it, that was a combination of the previous two reports which we should have submitted. We should also have submitted a further report in the interim period but, for some reason, that was not done, which is why we are presenting reports four and five together.
The combined report highlights the considerable progress made in engendering gender equality in Ireland since our last report under the convention. The Ireland of 2003 is a very different place to that of 1997 and the six years since Ireland's last report was submitted to the United Nations have seen major changes in terms of the legislative framework and society generally. Major groundbreaking legislation has been passed in the intervening years, including the Employment Equality Act 1998 and the Equal Status Act 2000, which, together with the Equality Authority and the Office of the Director of Equality Investigations, forms the essential basis to ensure that Irish women can no longer be discriminated against.
The unprecedented economic growth in recent years has been the catalyst for major change in society and has had a particular impact on the role of women. Since Ireland's last report in 1997, the participation rate of women in the labour force has risen from a relatively low level of 41.4% to 48.9% in 2002, while women in the labour force rose from 601,700 to 771,300 in 2002. For those women who wish to access or return to the workforce or avail of training or educational opportunities, we have demonstrated that we are committed to supporting them through policies such as supports for child care provision, policies aimed at enabling women to reconcile work and family life, gender mainstreaming and other positive action measures.
The Government accepts that the availability of affordable, quality child care places and supports for parents in their child care responsibilities are major issues. Compared with our EU partners, the Irish child care sector is underdeveloped and the cost of child care services in Ireland as a proportion of average earnings is among the highest in Europe. This is a crucial issue for mothers who wish to work or study and the Government has made significant progress on child care, resulting in the allocation of £437 million over the period 2000-06 for the development of child care.
Another crucial issue which impacts on women's lives is the reconciliation of work and family life. Since Ireland's last report, legislation has been amended to increase maternity, adoptive and parental leave, and further amendments are in the pipeline. In addition, a national framework committee for the development of work-life balance policies, which comprises public and private sector employers, trade unions and relevant Departments, has been set up to develop a package of practical measures which can be applied at the level of the enterprise.
A significant development to report on is the incorporation of the principle of gender mainstreaming in the current national development plan and the establishment of a gender equality unit in the Department to assist Departments and State agencies to gender mainstream their policies and programmes.
An important positive action measure in the report for promoting gender equality is the equality for women measure developed under the national development plan. Funding of €29 million which was originally earmarked for the measure from the Exchequer has been supplemented by the addition of more than €6 million in EU co-funded assistance from the European Social Fund. As well as funding a gender proofing strand, and the activities of the national framework committee on family-friendly policies, the measure is supporting more than 70 individual projects across Ireland aimed at improving the social, economic and cultural lives of women and decision-making.
An overarching goal of the measure is to impact on policy and practice so as to greatly reduce the barriers experienced by women seeking full participation in Irish society. One strand of the funding is for the promotion of women in decision-making. Three political parties qualified for funding under this strand, namely Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Sinn Féin. In addition, the Labour Party is involved in a project organised by Trinity College Dublin. Each party will be undertaking actions to increase the number of women holding decision-making roles within the parties and to increase the number of female electoral candidates and representatives.
As the committee will be aware, I have a particular interest in the position of women on State boards. While the rate of increase in overall representation of women on State boards has been disappointingly small since our last report, I am pleased to say that progress is being made. Appointments to State boards by Ministers or the Government have reached the 40% target, though we still have problems where members of boards are nominated by external bodies.
Of course the economy and decision-making are not the only areas where women can encounter inequality and the report highlights measures that have been taken to include a gender focus in social inclusion programmes. These include specific gender targets for women under the national anti-poverty strategy and measures to support lone parents, the majority of whom are women.
The Government is also very conscious of the need for equal access for women to health and education and I would like to touch briefly on the progress made in these two areas, which are described in detail in the report.
A national plan for women's health, published in April 1997, constitutes the blueprint for improving and developing health care services for women in Ireland. The plan was the result of a unique process of consultation with women that commenced in June 1995, following the publication of the discussion document, Developing a Policy for Women's Health. The plan for women's health identifies the action to be taken by health boards in regional plans to improve health services for women. These include, among others, maximising the health and social gain of Irish women and creating a women friendly health service.
To ensure full consultation with women in the future, A Plan for Women's Health provided for the establishment of the Women's Health Council. The council was established by statutory instrument in June 1997 and its functions include advising the Minister for Health and Children on all aspects of women's health and assisting the development of national and regional policies and strategies designed to increase health gain and social gain for women. Of particular relevance to women is the national breast screening programme of the Department of Health and Children which commenced in March 2000. To end October 2002, 106,199 women of the target population of approximately 136,000 women under phase 1 of the programme had been called for screening and 75,668 women had been screened.
In implementing education policies, the Government is committed to promoting "equality of access to and participation in education" and to promoting "the means whereby students may benefit from education". The Education Act 1998 makes specific provision for the promotion of equality of access to and participation in education and specifically provides for equal access to all forms of education and courses of study and equal opportunities between female and male students and staff. The Government's determination to ensure gender equality in education has been reinforced by the establishment of a special gender equality unit in the Department of Education and Science with a view to integrating a gender dimension into all of that Department's services, actions, programmes and measures for children and adults at all levels. The fruits of the Department of Education and Science's gender policies are demonstrated in statistics in the Report on Participation in Higher Education which show that in 2000, females constituted a majority - 53.5% - of new entrants to colleges.
Human rights are an essential prerequisite for equality and I am glad to say that the report points to very significant developments in Ireland on this issue. We attach great importance to the prevention of trafficking and exploitation of women as demonstrated by the enactment of the Illegal Immigrants (Trafficking) Act 2000 and to the signing by Ireland of the two accompanying protocols to the UN Convention on Transnational Organised Crime. Another important development was the enactment of the Human Rights Commission Act 2000 which provided for the establishment of the Human Rights Commission.
While not explicitly provided for in the convention, Ireland is determined to eliminate violence against women. In addition to the enactment of strong legislation including the Sex Offenders Act 2001 which allows for the compiling of the register of sex offenders, the Government established a national steering committee on violence against women in 1997. This committee has undertaken a number of activities aimed at preventing violence against women and providing supports to victims.
At an international level this report complements Ireland's report to the UN on the national plan for women, which was submitted to the United Nations in October 2002 and displays the Government's ongoing international commitments to the achievement of gender equality in Ireland under the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, CEDAW, and the Beijing Platform for Action.
The report would not be complete without referring to Ireland's reservations to the Convention. I am glad to say that the necessary protocol arrangements have been put in place to enable Ireland to withdraw one of its remaining reservations to the Convention which, along with the lifting of the reservation to Article 15 in March 2000, will mean that Ireland will just have three remaining reservations to the Convention compared with five at the time of submission of Ireland's last report.
While much has been done since Ireland's last report under the Convention, the Government is conscious that much work remains to be done to achieve full equality of opportunity for Irish women and men. To this end the Government, in Sustaining Progress, has undertaken to develop a five-year national women's strategy to achieve further progress on the advancement of women in our society in the coming years. The scoping of the strategy will be completed this year and I hope that the strategy itself can be completed by the end of 2004. Both the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the wider Beijing Platform for Action to which Ireland is committed will be important reference points for the development of the strategy.
I thank you, Chairman, for affording me the opportunity to appear before the committee today on this important issue. If members of the committee have any questions, I will do my best to answer them.
I am sure members have questions to put to the Minister of State and to that end, I call Deputy Moynihan-Cronin.
I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy O'Dea, to the committee.
A delegation from the Women's Human Rights Project attended the committee recently. It had much research done and its main concerns were based on fact. None of us were in any doubt that there are huge discrepancies in equality for women.
A recent report commissioned by the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre stated that the number of rape victims had increased dramatically. The figures released by the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, consistent with the crime figures for the third quarter of this year, indicate there has been a 42% rise in sexual assault. This is a serious issue. One of the difficulties is that many women do not report sexual crimes. We will have to introduce a system to encourage women who are raped to report the crime. Many women will not because of the way the current criminal justice system works and how it treats women. The rape crisis centres are not receiving adequate resources to carry out their work in providing support and assistance to those who have been raped or sexually abused. I ask the Minister of State to address this as a matter of urgency.
Another reason many women will not report sexual attacks is because they are of the opinion that the judicial system is not gender sensitive. The Government has claimed that money was made available to address this issue and judges would have gender training. It was left to the Chief Justice to decide who attended those training courses. Does the Minister of State have figures to indicate how many judges participated on those courses? There should be more women judges and the current judges should be advised on gender issues. Otherwise, women who have been raped will never report the crime. This major issue should be addressed.
In its report, the Women's Human Rights Project referred to the barriers against women in further education. I am concerned at the cuts in the provision for child care for children over five years of age under the VTOS programme. Many women - both married and lone parents - who are studying for the Leaving Certificate will find their child support cut in the middle of their studies. This will make it difficult for them to continue. In the Book of Estimates, we learned that there will be cuts in the provision for child care. Research shows that without adequate child care provision, women will continue to go for part-time jobs rather than seeking full-time employment. Recent research from the ESRI shows that women in home duties with children under the age of five years are less likely to be looking for work than those with no children. Child care provision is an important issue and I am disappointed that it has been cut both under the VTOS programmes and in the Book of Estimates.
Breast cancer is a major health problem and is the commonest cause of death among women. There are many women who are concerned that the breast cancer screening programme has not been extended as originally envisaged. Can the Minister of State update the committee as to how the Government plans to extend the programme? That women in County Kerry do not have the same access to breast and cervical cancer screening as those in other parts of the country is another form of discrimination. It is important that it is made a nationwide programme because we want to encourage women to take part in the Breastcheck programme. Early intervention is most important with this for of cancer.
On the increase of incidence of sexual assaults, I agree with the Deputy's figures as they are the same as those of the Garda. This issue ebbs and flows. If one looks at the different headings of crime——
I did not hear what the Minister of State said about the Garda figures.
What the Deputy is claiming coincides with the Garda figures.
Last year we were concerned about a rise in public order offences and the year before it was something else. These things rise and fall. There has been a significant increase over the past two sets of Garda figures in the number of rapes and sexual offences. It is a cause for concern. The figures available to me suggest that when a prosecution is taken on a sexual offence, 71% of cases are successful. The difficulty is that there is a high rate of attrition. People drop cases because the criminal justice process or whatever intimidates them. Recently, there have been a number of changes in that regard. The Sexual Offenders Act 2001 provided not just for the register of sex offenders but also for legal advice and assistance to rape victims at the expense of the State. For many years, rape crisis centres have been in touch with me on the provision of full legal representation in court for rape cases. Obviously, for constitutional reasons, we cannot go along with that. Rape is a serious offence but having two lawyers on the prosecution side against one for the defence might affect the balance of the trial.
The Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform has commissioned a study to ascertain why precisely there is still such a high rate of attrition in rape cases and to make recommendations as to what practical measures can be taken.
As the Deputy rightly stated, training on gender issues for judges is being arranged by themselves through the judicial studies committee. Training courses are available for members of the Judiciary on sexual offences and domestic violence. As to how many judges have availed of this opportunity, I do not know.
Will the Minister of State find out?
Yes, I will find it out and communicate with the Deputy.
The position on the provision for child care is that over the lifetime of the NDP €440 million is provided. There is no cut in the child care provision in the Book of Estimates for this year. I understand it is within a couple of thousand euro of what it was last year. The programme is on-going.
I agree with the Deputy on the VTOS programme. In the last Government I had responsibility for VTOS and adult education. If we are to encourage women, particularly young married women, back into the education system through VTOS, it is vital that there is adequate child care provision. We have been in contact with the Department of Education and Science on this issue. Apparently it has received feedback from vocational education committees throughout the country to the effect that if they lose places and so on, they might have to close down crèches and people will drop off. They have estimated what is required and will make an additional allocation.
Does the Minister know if it will be continued next year?
We will certainly be discussing that, because it is an absolute prerequisite that there be the most adequate possible child care facilities in place to enable women to attend those VTOS courses. I can think of many cases where women who are, thankfully, back in the education system through VTOS would not be able to continue without it, since they would simply not be able to afford private child care.
The Deputy asked about the health situation. The update, according to the figures available to me, is that BreastCheck is being continued throughout the State. The target population for phase one was 136,000 women. By October 2002, the last date for which we have figures, 106,000 women had been called for screening, and 75% of those had attended. That is just in excess of 80,000 women. I am aware of the problems to which the Deputy referred. In the mid-west region, which has many people living in remote areas, we have a pilot programme for cervical screening, which I understand is going very well. When phase one is completed, my information is that the Government intends to provide for phase two to start more or less immediately. However, I can get more specific information on that from the Department of Health and Children and communicate it to Members.
I thank the Minister. Before I call Deputy Costello, I have a question regarding a group of people who are mainly women, namely, carers looking after adults or children with disabilities in the home. They are a huge group and they feel very hard done by. What is the Minister's response? What initiatives has the Department in mind to deliver a better deal for women in that sector? As the Minister is aware, it is estimated that there are more than 100,000 carers, and, perhaps, 22,000 get some payment from social welfare. Approximately 14,000 or 15,000 of those get the full payment. What about the others?
My second point concerns an issue that the Minister addressed when it was raised by Deputy Moynihan-Cronin, namely, access to education. The Minister for Social and Family Affairs announced changes in the back to education scheme. Does the Minister have any input into that? What is his reaction to the question? It will make it much more difficult for single parents and unemployed people, mainly women, who will not have the same access to education that they did previously because of restrictions in the back to education scheme.
Perhaps I might take the second question first. Strictly speaking, the details of both schemes are outside my brief. However, I am very familiar with the back to education scheme, since it was my initiative. I introduced it when I was the Minister of State with responsibility for adult education. I am not familiar with the changes announced today, but I would naturally regret if anything erected barriers in people's way because——
Essentially it says that one must have been unemployed for 15 months rather than six months.
As I said, I have not had a chance to consider it, but I would regret that. When we introduced the scheme, initially for six months, it was an initiative under the White Paper on adult and continuing education that I produced. It emerged after a huge amount of consultation and intensive study by people for whose opinions in the area I had the highest regard. It was their considered opinion that six months was long enough and that anything longer would certainly be retrogressive. I have not had a chance to study those changes but I will certainly speak to the Minister about them. If the period has been extended to 15 months, I would certainly not like to see it extended any further. As I said, experts in that area arrived at the six-month period after extensive consultation and a great deal of deliberation.
Carers are, once again, a social welfare matter. However, from my own point of view and in response to the Chairman's question, I can remember a time not so long ago when there was no such thing as a carer allowance. It did not exist. Some innovative Minister for Social Welfare - I do not recall in which party or Government - introduced it. Several people contacted me seeking carers allowance when it was first introduced and I remember that the means test was very stringent. The income level was set at £6 or so. That has been relaxed quite considerably. Let us examine the latest figures. I processed those cases quite regularly in my constituency business. I cannot remember the exact figure, but if a married woman seeks the carers allowance to care for an elderly relative and her husband is working, the means test is now quite generous, having being improved progressively in various budgets. Some contend that there should be no means test for carers.
The Minister's own backbenchers.
Absolutely. The reality is that everyone wants everything instantly. It would be great if we had money for everything. We want no means tests for carers and more money for gardaí, education, health and so on. It is a great idea and if I had endless amounts of money, I could sit here all day coming up with wonderful ideas that would cost more money.
Less money on the nags.
It is a question of how one balances what money is available. In addition, under an initiative last year people can now take 65 weeks off work and claim carers' benefit. That is a non-means tested social welfare benefit.
It has been something of a disaster because when it comes to the end of the 65 weeks, there are major problems. They are caring for elderly relatives who must then leave.
It was not there at all last year.
It is not working out.
I recall that, when it was introduced, there was no great opposition to it from the Opposition. It was widely welcomed. Now that we can look at it in the cold light of experience, if there are glitches in it, I am sure that they can be ironed out. There is also now provision for carers' leave. People might not be entitled to carers' allowance or carers' benefit, but might still be entitled to carers' leave of up to 65 weeks. As part of the amendments that we are introducing to the parental leave legislation, we will be making some improvements. I understand that that legislation will be ready for publication very early in the new year. We do not live in a perfect world and whatever the entitlement, be it a tax concession, a social welfare benefit, a health issue or whatever, we have not reached the stage yet here where we are able to achieve perfection. Nevertheless, the matters that I have mentioned are quite a considerable improvement to an allowance which did not exist a few short years ago.
The only proper position regarding carers is that there should be no means testing, since if anyone is prepared to give the type of care required to someone disabled or elderly, it should not matter whether he or she has an income from the State or elsewhere. If they are prepared to contribute their time, means testing should be avoided if at all possible. We have the fourth and fifth reports here. They are actually one report but we missed out on the fourth. Can the Minister think of any reason we did not come up with the fourth report? When were we supposed to have it?
I am glad that two of the five reservations raised last time have disappeared. Will the Minister of State say whether we start from a disadvantage, in considering the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, since the Constitution stereotypes all women and stipulates that a woman's place is in the home, more than a man's? Greater demands as regards child-rearing, the family and the home are placed on women, which has a knock-on effect on the culture that has developed around their role over the decades. Does the Government intend to do something about the discrimination that effectively exists against women in the Constitution, our basic legal document, which determines the broad parameters under which all legislation is conceived and implemented? That in itself would be a major step forward in dealing with the issue that we have been examining. On child care, for example, it is expected that women should take the lion's share of the work because the Constitution effectively gives pre-eminence to the woman in the home. As a consequence, the State has not built up a proper child care service. There is no mention of any structured national pre-school service for children under the age of four. What we have are ad hoc structures which do not exist, based on funding that may be withdrawn, increased or decreased, as we have seen in the current budget Estimates and in the stealth cutbacks that have emerged since the Government returned to power.
If there are no proper child care facilities, women will be discriminated against as regards employment. They will be discriminated against as regards promotion and pay gaps will widen. That is one major area and it is reflected in the parental leave issue. There is maternity leave and leave for women but there is no such thing as paid parental leave for men. We have dissented from the European norm on this issue. That shows the discrimination against women because that is the way our State sees it. That is the way our founding fathers saw it and we still go along with it. This overlaps into the question of carers. The vast majority of carers are not paid and the fact that we have means testing indicates that women disproportionately end up being carers. I would like to see the statistics on the number of carers who are effectively unpaid because means testing prevents them from getting any funding. Women make up the vast majority in this category.
On State boards, the Minister of State may recall we discussed this recently in terms of the private services sector and the new board being established. He had no problem agreeing with the view of industry that not enough women could be found to provide a 40% gender balance on these new boards. It does not look as if every effort is being made to get the requisite gender balance when we set up new legislation and various boards and committees are established. If we are going to fulfil our commitment in this document and honour previous commitments from other reports, it should be legislated for but it is not. Every Minister has made excuses for not introducing it. It means there is no 40% built into any of our new measures of legislation. There is an aspiration and it is very seldom fulfilled. I believe women currently make up 29% of the complement on State boards, so we are not making much progress. Two other areas——
I am conscious that the Minister of State has to leave us in just over five minutes. Two other Deputies want to contribute and I want to get a response from the Minister of State. Perhaps the Deputy can conclude his questions.
I want, finally, to raise two issues with the Minister of State. One is the waiting list for free legal advice centres. In many areas there are long waiting lists. Will he say what is being done to deal with that because, again, women are major beneficiaries of those services? Will he say whether there are any proposals to deal with the Criminal Justice Act 1993, which appears to discriminate more against women than men as regards prostitution or the provision of sexual services? The legislation brought in has effectively re-criminalised prostitution, which in effect had been decriminalised up to 1993.
I have two short questions. I am concerned over the case of a long-married elderly couple where the man is admitted to a nursing home and a solicitor determines he is unfit to will his house and property to his wife. There is enormous cost involved for the woman in getting power of attorney to be able to administer the bank account, the land, etc. I learned this to my surprise. I had thought the wife would automatically have joint equity in the home that she had lived in for years but this seems to be a difficulty encountered by some people. It then becomes a costly business in acquiring and exercising the power of attorney. Will the Minister of State comment on that in a legal capacity? It disables women who wish to exercise their rights and duties to look after their spouse but are not in a position to do so. They then must depend on the State to finance them. If the Minister of State wants further information on that I can give it.
In view of the drafting of the European Constitution, will the Minister of State agree that it is important not only to express the aspiration for equal opportunities but to insert explicitly in writing the need to strengthen gender equality in the political, economic and social life of the European Union. Women in Ireland have benefited enormously from EU membership, with the supports that have been put in place, yet other countries look to us to see that provision is included in writing in the draft constitution, rather than just as an aspiration. It should be clearly stated for the future.
I have three short questions for the Minister for State. Will he say if there is any chance of extended funding for the women's human rights project, which made representations to the committee last week? Their programme ends at the end of the year, I believe, and it would be good to see it extended because of the work they have done so far.
The Minister of State mentioned the national plan for women. This was criticised by witnesses last week who said it was not a plan as such but a gathering of ideas towards a national plan. Is it planned to expand on that, to put timeframes, strategies, etc., in place for the national plan he mentioned?
I was not present when the Minister of State made his contribution earlier. What are the three reservations to the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, CEDAW, that still remain? There were five. Which three are left?
The Minister of State has quite a number of questions and I am conscious of the time; perhaps you might be able to give us a little bit of extra time and if there are questions that he has not managed to reach perhaps he will be good enough to respond in writing to us. Would that be satisfactory?
That is fine, yes.
In respect of Deputy Costello's comments, asking why we did not have the fourth report, all I can say is mea culpa, we should have had it in 1999; we just did not produce it and time went on. We are well into the fifth report, so we have the fourth and fifth together. This is not the first time this has happened. We had the second and third reports running into each other also. The sixth report, I am told, is due in 2007, we will try to ensure——
The first was in 1997, the second in 1999.
Yes.
The third?
It is every three years. No, every four years, so it will be 2007.
You will not be there for that I suppose. You will be on this side of the table.
Once I am at any side of the table I am happy. That is the answer to that.
On the Constitution stereotyping women, the Constitution was enacted and originated in the mid-1930s when values were different and people saw life differently here. It was drafted in such a way that it is capable of evolution through judicial decision. There is a limit to that which is why there is an all-party Committee on the Constitution examining the Constitution. My understanding is that it is examining Article 43, dealing with the right to private property. It will then move on to children and disability and it will subsequently look at Article 40(1), which deals with the family.
On the subject of paid parental leave, the social partners could not agree amongst themselves on whether it was desirable to have paid parental leave. There was genuine division between the social partners on that. The basis of the division was that everyone thinks it is a great idea but the question was put that there may be more effective ways to spend €130 million at current money values, which was the estimated cost of paid parental leave. The statistics on the number of female unpaid carers is something I do not have off the top of my head. We will try to get that for Deputy Costello.
On the State boards, I am glad to report that we are making some progress now. The members will be aware of the initiative I took on drawing up a report every six months for submission to Cabinet; we have completed one report and the other report is ready to go to Cabinet. It will be presented to the Cabinet in the next week or so and I will then publish it and be happy to discuss it here. I notice that between the first six months and the second six months the number of females proposed by Ministers and Government Departments to State boards has increased by an appreciable amount. Government Departments are now almost in line with the overall objective, as taking the entire public sector, it has gone up to about 30%. There is still a problem with outside nominating bodies, but our original objective was 40%. The committee can rest assured that I will keep a close eye on this and will carefully monitor the performance of my colleagues.
Will that include the Minister of States party as well?
That is an increase of work time.
On waiting times for free legal aid centres, I am not aware of any great outcry at present about long waiting lists.
There are huge waiting lists.
I can recall a time, when Deputy Costello's party was in Government, when the waiting list for the Dublin free legal aid centre stretched almost as far as Limerick. It was horrendous. The only way that it was dealt with was by giving extra resources and staff to the law centres. If the waiting list has built up again I suppose it is due to the introduction of divorce.
The Criminal Justice Act 1993, is something I will have to look at. We will write to the Deputy on that subject.
Deputy Hoctor mentioned the cost of power of attorney. To the best of my knowledge, and I will have this confirmed, the Law Reform Commission are looking at this question of power of attorney with a view to making changes to make it manageable. I realise the Deputy's concerns. It would not be that a husband and wife automatically jointly own a house. In this case, the husband was the sole owner of the property unless it was put jointly in both names. If the husband in this case died without making a will, the position is that two thirds of the property would go to his wife and one third to his children in equal shares between them. However, if the Deputy wants to talk to me about that, that is fine.
I believe what the Deputy is referring to is something I also have encountered. It is a more difficult situation that sometimes arises when there is somebody who has, not just a house, which is not the immediate problem, but bank accounts in a single name. If that person gets a stroke or whatever, it leaves the partner, wife or spouse absolutely stuck, with no money or access to money. The banks will not release anything in those situations. If that whole process of——
Wards of court.
Wards of court and power of attorney. It can leave women vulnerable. I have encountered a case, like the Deputy, where a lady claimed she did not have enough money for food.
I will give an example. I had a case where there was a farm involved and where there was no family. The husband developed Alzheimer's disease but everything was in his name. The headage payment cheque was in his name, as was the creamery cheque. His wife had to bank all those cheques but could not cash them. She had no income and was eventually forced to sell all her animals, which she could hardly bring herself to do. The doctors in the hospital examined the man regularly to determine if there was any hope of signing anything, but the woman was literally forced to leave her farm to find work even though she had never worked anywhere but on her own farm. It was a dreadful situation.
It is something that more usually affects women. I take the point that the process of having somebody made a ward of court is very cumbersome and drawn out. I believe the Law Reform Commission is looking at this. I will find out what the update is on that and write to the Deputy about it, as it is relevant to the deliberations of this committee.
In respect of the EU Constitution, Article 2 deals with the aims of the Constitution, referring to equality simplicitor, rather than equality between men and women. However, Article 3, which deals with the objectives of the Constitution, refers to equality between men and women. We feel that the broader statement in Article 2 is preferable. It is sufficiently wide to encompass equality between men and women. However, equality between the sexes is an objective of the treaty as that is set out in Article 3.
On Deputy Ó Snodaigh's question, the position on funding is that it was not envisaged that any of the projects funded under the women's equality initiative would involve core funding. Projects are funded under this if a group comes in with a specific project to advance equality of women or if they generate good ideas that the various Government Departments can implement. What we are funding is a series of one-off projects. However, it would be impossible to continue funding on that basis but phase two is funding a number of new projects as these initial projects come to an end. If the group that the Deputy is referring to has another project they want funded, or it is an extension of this project, we will be quite happy to hear from them. They have already been allocated about €156,000 and have still to draw down €20,000 of that sum, which will be paid to them in the next week or two.
On the national strategy for women, there was a wide consultation process with women's groups being consulted all over the country. There were about ten national fora in the preparation of this plan, with 350 or more submissions. We compiled and collated all the different views of the women's organisations and submitted them as part of the plan. We also submitted a number of specific issues to the United Nations last October. The central proposal of our submission was that we prepare a national five-year strategy for the advancement of women in Irish society. At present, we are working out the scope of that. It is envisaged that it will provide for improvements above and beyond the area we are working on already. I am confident that the setting of the parameters will be sorted out in the next couple of weeks and that we will be in a position to start preparing the strategy. It is envisaged that it will provide for improvements above and beyond the areas in which we are already working. I am confident that setting the parameters of that will be sorted out in the next few weeks and that we will be in a position to proceed to prepare the strategy in 2004 and that it will be prepared within 2004. It is a five year strategy. I think that covers most of the questions.
There was another question related to reservations.
Yes.
The Minister of State can drop us a note on that because I am conscious of the time.
I will drop the Chairman a note on that.
I thank the Minister of State and his officials for joining us today. We look forward to meeting the Minister of State again and to hearing from him on the further responses he said he would give us on those matters.
I ask members to remain for a few minutes because we have some business to deal with, which will not take long. We will go into private session to deal with it.
The joint committee went into private session at 4.31 p.m. and adjourned at 4.41 p.m. sine die.