International Women's Day: Statements Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-04 ============================================================ Emer Higgins (FG), Dublin Mid-West I thank the Acting Chairperson very much. I appreciate that. I am glad we did that because it is important for every Senator who wants the opportunity to speak on this to be able to do so. I thank everybody for participating in today's remarks. There were some really thoughtful contributions. That is fantastic. International Women's Day and the lead-up to it is about taking the opportunity to pause, reflect, think and celebrate the absolutely extraordinary contribution of women and girls across Ireland. Every single day, we see women achieving remarkable things, whether it is in sport, science, technology, law, business, education, public service, homes or communities across Ireland. None of that progress happens by chance. It is built on the courage of the women who came before us. These are women who pushed through barriers, insisted on fairness, demanded change and made it possible for the next generation to dream bigger. As the Minister, Deputy Foley, said, Ireland has made real strides in advancing gender equality. It is positive to see our progress reflected in the EU gender equality index. It shows that our commitments are not just words and not just strategies. They are actions and, most importantly, they are working. The same can be said of our approach to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. I wish to take a moment to recognise the work of Cuan and refuges across Ireland. The newly launched national strategy for women and girls is central to progress. It recognises that women experience different things at different stages in their lives with different challenges at different moments. It ensures that our policies respond with empathy and understanding. In the Department, we are working hard to raise awareness around gender equality to understand where women and girls face barriers and to take practical steps to remove them. We want every woman and girl to have the freedom and the support to choose their own path. We have also strengthened the supports across the life cycle, including family leave entitlements, that make a real difference to working parents across the country. We remain committed to ensuring more women can rise into leadership roles of every description. I am proud that Ireland has now fully transposed the EU directive on gender balance on corporate boards because diversity in leadership strengthens every organisation. As a backbench TD when I was first elected to Dáil Éireann, that is something I tabled my first legislation on. It is fantastic to see it come to fruition. It is also vital we speak about gender equality in an intersectional way because women do not share a single experience. As we have heard from contributions today, background, ethnicity, disability and income circumstances all shape the challenges women face. If we want genuine equality, we must design policies that reflect and respect this diversity. I appreciate the warning we heard today regarding democracy, but to maybe give a different perspective on that, I believe our democracy is unfinished. It is unfinished until we have better and adequate representation - not just women, but also disabled people and people from different ethnic backgrounds and minorities. I very much look forward to seeing a complete democracy in Ireland. As Minister of State with responsibility for disability, I am especially proud of the national human rights strategy for disabled people that was launched last year. It was launched and co-created with disabled people. Together with the national strategy for women and girls, these two strategies have the power to deliver meaningful change in the lives of disabled women and girls. This Government remains firmly committed to advancing gender equality, both here at home and on a global stage. I wish to take a moment to talk about women from outside of Ireland. There is so much work to do and we are honest about that here in Ireland, but we also need to be honest about that internationally. Today is an opportunity to celebrate the real progress we have made, but it is also an opportunity to think about what we need to do differently, and to look forward with renewed hope and determination to brighter futures, not just here but also abroad, where women and girls need that hope now more than ever. Ultimately, that is what this is all about. It is about ensuring every girl in Ireland and across the world grows up knowing her opportunities are and should be unlimited, that she is and should be valued, and that she is capable and can lead, shape and contribute to the future of society, her country and our globe. I thank the Acting Chair for taking the opportunity to ensure this debate happened today. --- 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