Women Sinn Féin TDs make pledge on International Women’s Day

TDs Mary Lou McDonald and Sandra McLellan

NEWLY-ELECTED Sinn Féin TDs Mary Lou McDonald and Sandra McLellan have said that women’s rights will be a priority for their party in the new Dáil.

Deputies McDonald and McLellan were launching five priorities for Sinn Féin in the new Dåil to mark International Women’s Day.

Speaking at Leinster House, Mary Lou said:

It is very clear that inequality is as real and rampant as ever and must be tackled head-on by all in power.

We must place the issue of gender equality in a wider context not least in terms of pay parity but in terms of protecting and reinstating services availed of by women.

The Dublin TD pointed out that, despite making progress in terms of equality, women still earn 17% less than men in the State.

Sinn Féin will advocate for a new equal pay framework that makes clear the obligations on public and private employers to tackle unequal pay, which allows for women to take representative actikn and which includes robust equal pay auditing obligations and increases the powers and sanctions available to employment tribunals and regulatory bodies.

Rising unemployment and social welfare cuts has meant growing poverty for women, especially for single parents.  That is why Sinn Féin has called for the cuts in social welfare to be reversed and for child benefit payments to be protected.

Attacks on childcare, refuges for women and other services have made it more difficult for women to escape domestic violence. We need to ensure that funding is restored and that the judicial system is reformed so that all victims of abuse are protected by the law.

Publicly-provided quality services such as childcare, healthcare and education would give women a real choice over every aspect of their lives. As it stands, however, public services are being decimated and access to critical services is increasingly dependent on income. Public services should be for the benefit of all the people of the State equally – we need to remove all barriers to these services.

Sinn Féin has been consistent in calling for universal childcare and for the end to the two-tier health system that have borne so many economic and social inequalities.

Meanwhile, in the Six Counties, Councillor Patricia Logue said that Irish republicans have many strong female figures that we proudly remember each and every International Women’s Day:

Women like Máire Drumm, Mairead Farrell and Sheena Campbell. They and a long line of other women gave so much to bring about necessary change for the Irish people.

Sinn Féin believes in and is committed to building an egalitarian society and women are absolutely pivotal in making that a reality. That is reflected in the fact that Sinn Féin has the largest number of female MLAs in the Assembly, and two of our ministers are women.

We also place huge emphasis to ensure that women are properly represented at each level of the party because we believe that women, who make up over 50% of the population, need adequate representation in politics and in every walk of life.