New Special Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality to be established – Carroll MacNeill

Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has welcomed the decision by the Oireachtas Business Committee to accept her proposal to establish a new, dedicated and fully resourced Special Oireachtas Committee to drive the implementation of recommendations from the Citizen’s Assembly on Gender Equality.

Fine Gael Parliamentary Party Vice-Chair and Spokesperson for Equality, Deputy Carroll MacNeill said, “Having written to the Ceann Comhairle earlier this week to ask that this be considered and progressed, I’m delighted to have received such resounding support from him and the Business Committee to progress this important work.

“It’s absolutely crucial to keep the momentum going to deliver the change that women all over Ireland need to see in their day to day lives.

“The creation of the Committee and its structure should be a team effort, including myself and all my parliamentary colleagues who have expressed support for this, the Oireachtas Women’s Caucus and the National Women’s Council, all of whom have done trojan work in this area to date.

“The timing of today’s announcement represents significant progress since the publication of Dr Catherine Day’s report last month, and now allows us time over the next number of weeks to prepare and get ready to begin serious work on the Committee during the autumn Oireachtas session.

“I look forward to working with my colleagues on progressing this Committee with the urgency it requires and plan on making myself very much available for some additional Committee work come September, if the opportunity to be selected was to arise”, concluded Deputy Carroll MacNeill.