I begin by welcoming all present to the Chamber and wishing everyone, especially my female colleagues, a happy International Women's Day. As Minister with responsibility for gender equality, International Women's Day is significant. It is a reminder of my Department's mission of working towards a fair, equal and inclusive society where rights are respected and all people can reach their full potential. In particular, empowering women and girls is a key priority of Ireland’s domestic and foreign policy, with the overarching goal of creating a fairer and more sustainable society. Notably, through the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality and the subsequent Joint Committee on Gender Equality, a clear and sharp focus has been brought to the specific measures that we can and must take to advance gender equality. I commend Dr. Catherine Day on her work as chair of the citizens' assembly, all of the 99 citizens who took part in the assembly and Deputy Bacik on chairing the joint committee. As the latter’s report quite rightly outlines, until gender equality is achieved, democracy is unfinished. This is why the Government has committed to a structured and meaningful response to all recommendations and to tackling inequalities, wherever they appear in our society.
As Deputies will be aware, a year ago the Government announced the holding of referendums to amend the Constitution to address the wording of Article 41, a key recommendation of both the citizens’ assembly and the joint committee. This Friday, the Irish people will go to the polls to make their voices heard. The Government considered the recommendations made by the citizens' assembly and the joint committee in the context of constitutional change extremely carefully. If passed, these referendums will amend Article 41 of the Constitution to provide for a wider concept of family and delete Article 41.2 of the Constitution, to remove text on the role of women in the home. A new Article 42B will be inserted to recognise family care. The Electoral Commission is undertaking its public information campaign, with printed information being distributed to all 1.8 million households in the State. Ballot papers and polling cards have also been printed for the entire electorate and voting and counting arrangements are being made at centres all over the country for the vote that will take place on Friday.
Although International Women’s Day is a date of major significance, for the Government, the goal of achieving gender equality should not be relegated to a single day each year. It is an ongoing, daily priority, exemplified by the practical measures we have taken to advance gender equality. Notably, the Government has taken comprehensive steps to address domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, DSGBV, in Ireland. I am pleased to report that a new statutory agency, Cuan, dedicated to tackling gender-based violence in all its forms, was established in January 2024 and recently launched. Co-designed with DSGBV NGOs, bringing together what was recognised as being an extremely fragmented range of supports for DSGBV, Cuan will have among its functions, responsibility for coordinating and overseeing all actions set out in the Third National Strategy on Domestic Sexual and Gender-Based Violence, delivering key services to victims of domestic violence and leading on awareness raising campaigns. Further actions under the Third National Strategy on Domestic Sexual and Gender-Based Violence have also been completed. The Online Safety and Media Regulation Act was enacted in December 2022 and the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Human Trafficking) Bill passed Third Stage in Dáil Éireann in December 2023.
It must be acknowledged that while domestic violence can happen to anyone, women and girls are impacted disproportionately. When I introduced domestic violence leave in November 2023, Ireland became one of the first countries in Europe to introduce a statutory right to such leave, a key commitment in both the programme for Government and the Third National Strategy on Domestic Sexual and Gender-Based Violence. Employees who are experiencing domestic violence can now access five days paid leave to help them to access necessary supports. My Department engaged with Women’s Aid in the development of supports for employers in implementing this leave to ensure that it is embedded within a robust workplace policy. We know victims of DSGBV are at a higher risk of poverty. I hope this leave has already helped women experiencing domestic violence to remain in employment and achieve their full potential.
The Government has also taken a range of measures to promote gender equality in the workplace. The gender pay gap is a key measurement of women’s economic empowerment. Through a suite of measures, the gender pay gap in Ireland has decreased from 14.4% in 2017 to 9.6% in 2022. My Department introduced gender pay gap reporting in 2022, which requires organisations to report on their gender pay gaps across a range of metrics, encouraging them to reflect on their gender pay and the drivers behind it and to set out the measures they will take to address the gender pay gaps in their organisations. Reporting began in 2022 for organisations with more than 250 employees and will now be extended to those with more than 150 employees. A centralised reporting database is currently being developed by my Department, which will make information on organisations' gender pay gaps more accessible to the public. It will also support the Government to take meaningful steps to further support women's economic empowerment.
We have also expanded family leave entitlements for working parents. From August, parents of children under two will have an individual entitlement to nine weeks' paid parent’s leave to care for their children, an increase from the current seven weeks and from the two weeks' leave they were entitled to when I became Minister. Furthermore, my Department has introduced the right to request flexible working for parents and carers, as part of the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, due to be commenced later this week.
Care is a fundamental element of our society. We must acknowledge that women remain disproportionately responsible for unpaid care work. In the workplace, women are also over-represented in lower paid roles in the care sector. This is why we have taken steps to advance recognition of care and social protection in Ireland. Notably, major reforms have been introduced to the national childcare scheme, which have improved the affordability of early learning care and school aged childcare for families. There has been an unprecedented 70% increase in investment in the childcare sector since 2020. As part of budget 2024, I announced funding of more than €1.1 billion for this sector, with a second 25% reduction in childcare costs due to kick in from September, fulfilling the commitment we made to halve childcare costs for parents. This funding also means that the First 5 strategy target of more than €1 billion per year being invested in childcare, originally to be achieved by 2028, was met in 2023, five years ahead of schedule.
Just last week, I announced an €18 million capital grant for this sector to increase the capacity of services.
We have also delivered on our commitment to secure better pay deals for early years educators. With the creation of the joint labour committee in 2022, new minimum hourly rates of pay were agreed, which has improved pay for approximately 73% of workers in early years and school-age childcare, the vast majority of whom are female. Our work in this area is not finished. I am committed to the process of making sure the dedicated and highly skilled early years workforce are paid their worth and to ensuring they remain in the sector.
Allowances for carers also continue to increase. From January 2024, there has been an increase in weekly social welfare payments, with the maximum rates of carer's allowance and carer's benefit also increasing. The income disregard for carer's allowance for both couples and single carers has also increased under the most recent budget. In addition, cognisant of the gender pension gap, the pension auto-enrolment scheme will be introduced in the second half of this year. The State pension scheme gives significant recognition to those whose work history includes an extended period of time outside the paid workplace, and the scheme does this through measures such as the awarding of PRSI credits, application of the homemaker's scheme and application of home care periods. Since January 2024, the contributory State pension scheme recognises caring periods of up to 20 years outside paid employment.
While steps have been taken to improve equality for women with caring responsibilities in the home, I am happy to report that key progress has also been made to empower women of diverse backgrounds to participate in politics, leadership and public life at all levels of decision-making. In this regard, the statutory minimum gender quota for male and female candidates from political parties standing for election increased from 30% to 40% in February 2023. If this quota is not met, parties will lose 50% of their annual funding.
The programme for Government also acknowledges the need for greater diversity and gender equality. It committed the Government to empower local authorities to encourage an improved gender and ethnic mix in local elections. In December 2022, statutory maternity leave for councillors was introduced for the first time. I have outlined my commitment to introducing practical and effective maternity leave for Members of the Oireachtas. Legislative proposals to provide for this leave are being developed. Following proposals from the Irish Cancer Society, we also intend to allow for maternity leave to be delayed in cases of serious illness.
The Government has also made strides on women's health. Investment of €140 million since 2020 has enabled several milestone developments. We have implemented a free contraception scheme for women aged between 17 and 31 and a publicly funded assisted human reproduction treatment scheme accessed via six regional fertility hubs. A total of a 16 of a planned 20 see-and-treat ambulatory gynaecology clinics are operational, as are six specialist menopause clinics. Two specialist endometriosis centres for complex care have been established, with five regional hubs offering an initial level of service. In addition, perinatal mental health services are being provided in all 19 maternity services across the country.
I have outlined a selection of key examples of the Government's far-reaching actions that show our commitment to taking concrete steps to advance gender equality in Ireland. I look forward over the coming year to continuing to work with Deputies on all sides of the House as we aim to revitalise our commitment to achieving gender equality between men and women.
I wish to speak briefly on the referendums taking place on Friday. Almost since the ink was dry on the Constitution, Article 41.2 has been controversial. The provision has achieved nothing for women, serving only as an outdated and proscriptive view of their role in Irish society. As Justine McCarthy noted in The Irish Times today:
[T]he article doesn't say that a woman's place is in the home ... it actually says something stronger. It says women's life and mothers' duties are in the home. That is sexist, reductive and insulting.
Yet, it is a view that has remained in our Constitution for almost 90 years now. Friday will offer the opportunity to embrace a much wider vision. It will enshrine care, in all its forms, as a fundamental value in our State and oblige the State to strive to support it. This is a new legal obligation. The courts, as the judicial arm of the State, will be required to interpret and apply the article as appropriate in cases where the provision of support for family care is an issue.
This amendment is not just symbolic. The intention is that it will place on onus on the Government and all future governments to achieve a progressive realisation of support for care within a family. The amendment would represent a strong statement by the Irish nation. If passed, Ireland will be among the first countries globally to explicitly elevate care to a constitutional value at the heart of our nation's founding document. It is a clear recognition that the State needs to do more to support care, those who provide it and those who receive it. This is a hugely significant step. I urge everyone to vote yes, yes this Friday.
