I remind Senators that the time limit per speaker is 20 minutes. I call on Senator Farrell who is in possession. The Senator has four minutes.
As Senator Farrell is not in the Chamber. I call Senator Byrne.
Report of the Second Commission on the Status of Women: Motion (Resumed).
The following motion was moved by Senator Wright on Thursday, 11 March 1993:
That Seanad Éireann takes note of the Report of the Second Commission on the Status of Women.
I wish to say a few words about the EC. I want to deal first with set-aside——
We are not debating the EC.
My apologies. I understood we were continuing this morning's debate.
Acting Chairman
The motion is on the Report of the Second Commission on the Status of Women.
My apologies.
On a point of order, why are we here? This has been an astonishing week as far as I am concerned. I admit I am new in the Chamber but the motion on the Opsahl report fell yesterday for the want of speakers, a most important debate in my opinion and one to which I had already contributed. Now we have another debate and apparently there are no speakers. I cancelled clinics to attend at this House. On a point of clarification, if there are no speakers for a debate——
Acting Chairman
Senator Finneran wishes to speak. I call Senator Finneran.
I apologise for being a few minutes late. I welcome the Minister to the House. The Report of the Second Commission on the Status of Women is an important document. Many people gave a lot of their time to compile a series of recommendations they considered would enhance the status of women in Ireland. We all support the ideal of women and their positions in all aspects of life but the practical implementation of that ideal is not always carried through by agencies and organisations.
The content of this report is impressive. It identifies many of the outstanding issues that women could rightly claim to have been ignored by Irish society. My hope is that this Government, together with all agencies at national and local level, will implement the recommendations in the report.
One area which the report identified and made recommendations was health. I was surprised to note that, even though many of the issues pertinent to women's health were considered, the issue of women occupying senior management positions was not addressed. I believe there is a glaring discrimination against women in our health services. It is estimated that approximately 80 per cent of health service employees are women, yet women are not involved in the administration of the services. There are eight health boards but no woman occupies the position of chief executive officer. There are approximately 20 programme managers employed by the health boards, yet there is no woman among them. There are almost 30 highly paid senior management posts in the health services, administering eight health boards, employing thousands of people, yet there is not one woman in the entire senior management structure.
This is unacceptable and the position is almost as bad at middle management level. It is estimated that less than 5 per cent of hospital administrators are women. There is the absurd situation where the practical implementation of the health services at ward and community level is largely undertaken by women but women are excluded from the management and administration of the services. The National Development Plan contains a commitment to gender proofing. Our health boards would do well to take this commitment on board with all due urgency.
That is the present situation in the health services and the health boards. A similar situation pertains in local government. There is at least one county manager in every county, and there are two or more in some counties where there are joint authorities but to my knowledge there is no woman in the position of county manager or at the level of county manager in the county or city manager structure.
This gives rise to the situation where two of the most important arms of local and regional government, one administering the health services the other administering local government, do not have at senior management level even one woman in any of the positions that administer those services. Unless these situations are tackled and addressed openly, publicly and with conviction, I do not believe changes will be made simply by issuing a report. People in public life must not shy away from speaking out against what I consider to be a scandalous situation of women at health and local government senior management level.
These are only two areas I have identified today, but they are two of the most important areas as far as the running of the country at local and regional level is concerned. We in this House and the Members of the other House have a duty to improve that situation. It is extraordinary that while there are 46,000 to 47,000 people employed in the health services, there are no women employed in 30 of the most senior positions, even though it is generally accepted that up to 80 per cent of those 46,000 to 47,000 employees are female. This is scandalous and must be tackled. I am delighted that the National Development Plan, which was announced on Monday, contains a commitment to do this. I want to see this commitment hououred and the Government informing the Local Government Staff Negotiations Board and the Local Appointments Commission of the need for gender proofing and allowing women to be appointed to senior positions.
The report will be debated at length during the year and I understand there will be follow-up developments between now and the end of the year. I hope the opportunity is again presented to me, possibly in the next session, to contribute to an investigation of what is happening in this field and the implementation by those who have the power to do so of what is recommended and accepted by most of us.
I agree with Senator Finneran's comments about the failure of local authorities and health boards to acknowledge the experience and talent of their female staff. This should have been done a long time ago. When the county enterprise partnership boards were being set up the guidelines introduced by the Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Deputy Quinn, included a request that 40 per cent of the positions on these boards be filled by women. The nominating bodies in my constituency failed to nominate any women. Deputy Theresa Ahearn, who represents the constituency, highlighted this and complained to the Minister. The situation was rectified, some of the nominating bodies nominated two ladies. There are now three women on the board, including the chairperson of the county council, Susan Maher but there are no ladies on a large proportion of the county enterprise partnership boards.
Women have experience in different areas to men. In my local authority over the last number of years we have insisted that plans for local authority houses be vetted by a lady member of the county council; we have two lady members on the council. It is frequently the woman who spends most time in the kitchen and looking after the family. No matter how qualified an architect or an engineer may be, I do not think they would recognise all the needs of the lady of the house.
As Senator Finneran stated, this situation has existed for a long time. I do not know why it has been allowed to drift for so long but it is time the experience of women in various walks of life was acknowledged and that they were given an opportunity similar to that provided by the county enterprise partnership boards which reserve a percentage of places for women. This is a step in the right direction.
I did not have time to read the report and I will not pretend I have read it, but I am sure there is much food for thought in it. As Senator Finneran stated, we hope that in a few months time we will discuss it again and then we will see if local bodies, such as health boards, county councils and all the organs of the State, have moved in the right direction to ensure not only fair play for women but also that they will have an input into those bodies.
Question put and agreed to.
Sitting suspended at 4.45 p.m. and resumed at 6 p.m.