Special Oireachtas Committee needs to be established to implement Gender Equality recommendations – Carroll MacNeill

A Special Oireachtas Committee needs to be established before the year is out to oversee the implementation of recommendations on Gender Equality made by the Citizen’s Assembly, according to Fine Gael TD for Dún Laoghaire, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill.

Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said, “The Gender Equality Citizen’s Assembly made 45 recommendations across eight key areas, including childcare and leadership & politics. Three of those recommendations are in relation to our Constitution.

“These three recommendations are:

1. Insert a new clause into Article 40 to refer explicitly to gender equality and non-discrimination.
2. Delete and replace the text of Article 41.2 (woman in the home) with language that is not gender specific and obliges the State to take reasonable measures to support care within the home and wider community.
3. Amend Article 41 so that it would protect private and family life, with the protection afforded to the family not limited to the marital family

“I have yet to meet a woman in my personal and professional life who hasn’t experienced gender-based inequality, either directly or indirectly”, continued Deputy Carroll MacNeill.

“The members of the Citizen’s Assembly worked extremely hard for over a year to deliver these recommendations. It is our duty as public representatives and members of the Oireachtas to assist in implementing them in a speedy and efficient manner.

“I wrote to the Ceann Comhairle this morning to request that a full Oireachtas debate take place on the matter.

“Further to that, I have asked that a Special Oireachtas Committee to oversee the implementation of these recommendations be established. This Committee could be tasked with scoping the draft text for the referendum on the 3 Constitutional recommendations so that a referendum could proceed as soon as 2022.

“I have engaged with the National Women’s Council of Ireland and we are working together to ensure the speedy implementation of these recommendations for the improvement of equality across the country”, concluded Deputy Carroll MacNeill.