International Women's Day: Statements
Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-04
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Malcolm Noonan (GP), Agricultural Panel

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. Is lá an-tábhachtach ar an bhféilire é Lá Idirnáisiúnta na mBan. Is lá é chun díriú ar an méid atá ar siúl inár sochaí ina bhfuil mná agus cailíní ar nós an t-athrú aeráide, an scrios agus an dúshaothrú. Tá mé ag iarraidh caint faoi na mná atá ag obair chun ár domhan a athrú agus a shábháil, de ghnáth ag baint óna ghnáthshaol chun é seo a dhéanamh.
On this day of statements to mark International Women's Day, we have all spoken of the awesome women in our own lives and the women we know. I am fortunate to be surrounded by women and girls in my life, coming from a family of seven girls and an amazing mother, Kathleen, who reared ten of us. I have my lovely wife Jennie and the joy of having Kitty in our lives. I am part of a group in Seanad Éireann with three amazing and powerful women politicians. Indeed, I acknowledge all of the women in politics, the women Seanadoirí anseo and the additional challenges they face in the most patriarchal of professions.
As an environmentalist, I know women and girls are at the forefront in suffering from the destruction and exploitation of our natural world. Displacement through climate breakdown, deforestation, the poisoning of our drinking water, conflict and extractive industries very often pushes families out of household settings and into refugee camps. Almost ten years ago to the day, on 2 March 2016, gunmen broke into the home of an indigenous Lenca environmental defender, Berta Cáceres. They shot her dead and injured her friend Gustavo Castro. Berta was an environmental defender and was defending her community along the River Gualcarque in Honduras from the Agua Zarca hydroelectric dam project. High-ranking executives from the construction company, former military and the executioners were convicted and imprisoned for her murder.
It was found in a recently concluded report that Berta was the victim of corporate crime. She was murdered because, in defending her community and environment, her actions could have potentially stopped the project and impacted on the profits of shareholders. This was not a unique or one-off incident. In fact, common tactics deployed by companies like DESA in this case were harassment, intimidation, the destruction of lands, restricting movement and even murder. Berta is one of 2,200 environmental and land offenders murdered since 2012, with over 6,200 recorded incidents of attacks, many of which involved women.
State, corporate and local actors are complicit in many cases. There is very little we can do here, apart from raise issues diplomatically or ensure that trade rules are not facilitating such exploitation. We should be aware as legislators, however, that our actions, how we fund development, the developments we fund and the new deregulation agenda are contributing to environmental destruction for the profits of corporates and the displacement of indigenous peoples. Indeed, this was found to be the cases in regard to the Agua Zarca project, which was part funded by the Dutch bank.
Berta's murder led to a public outcry in Honduras and around the world. The voice they tried to silence grew louder. Her legacy is new laws protecting indigenous communities from extractive industries and exploitation. Berta has become a powerful symbol for the power of women in the face of environmental degradation, the struggle for water and land rights and the fight for mother Earth. On this International Women's Day, we pay tribute to women environmental defenders all over the world and thank them for their efforts to restore our common home.

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Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-03-04/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:43+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-04