Progress on tackling women’s issues ‘much too slow’, NWCI rally hears

Progress tackling women's issues has been "much too slow", a rally organised by the National Women's Council of Ireland (NWCI) in Dublin city heard on Saturday.

Speaking to a crowd of several hundred outside Leinster House, NWCI director Orla O'Connor said the Government needed to do more to tackle violence against women, and to provide affordable childcare.

“We know that women are not all impacted in the same way … One parent families are at the centre of our housing crisis, Traveller women continue to have a lower life expectancy than settled women,” she told the crowd.

Ms O’Connor was critical that women who were suffering domestic violence were left on “waiting lists” to access refuges in some parts of the country.

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Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said women demanded to be "safe on our streets, safe in our homes". Addressing the rally, Ms McDonald said many women were being forced to make constant choices "between heating the room and feeding a hungry mouth".

She said women had a right to access healthcare “in State provided facilities without the blight of theological dogma”, referencing the controversy over the ownership arrangements of the new National Maternity Hospital.

“The political system can choose to listen or not, they may choose to look the other way, but be very clear sisters, that the old Ireland is gone and change is coming,” she said.

During her speech, two women in the crowd repeatedly shouted the name of Máiría Cahill, who was raped as a teenager by a senior IRA member, and has been a vocal critic of Sinn Féin over how the matter was handled.

In response to the hecklers, Ms McDonald told the crowd that women “demand our right not to be bullied, ever, off any public platform”.

‘Disproportionate burden’

Patricia King, general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu), said there was a gender pay gap of 14 per cent in Ireland, which she said meant that “for every one euro a man earns, a woman will earn 86 cents”.

Ms King said much of this was because “women are often forced to work less hours, because they carry a huge disproportionate burden of caring responsibilities,” due to the lack of affordable childcare.

Speaking at the rally, Labour Party TD Ivana Bacik called for the "sexist and dated language about women and mothers" to be removed from the Constitution. It was "appalling" that there were only 37 female TDs in the Dáil in 2022, which amounted to 23 per cent female representation, she said.

Several hundred demonstrators gathered for the NWCI rally, held in advance of International Women’s Day on Tuesday.

The line-up of speakers had been a point of political controversy, with female Oireachtas members from Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil hitting out that no representative from Government parties had been invited to speak at the event.

Responding to the criticism on Saturday, Ms O’Connor said the rally was a “moment for Government to listen”.

Fine Gael TD Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, who was in the crowd, said she felt “disappointed” members from Government parties had not been invited to speak, but added they would continue to work “collaboratively” with the NWCI on women’s issues.