Being Mum

 

I am, as you know, a politician.

 

But I am also a Mum.

 

And few things are more important, politically, than how the state looks after children and parents too. 

 

You would not think that, of course, if you looked around Leinster House; too often it resembles a sort of gentleman’s club, a refuge, if you like, from modernity.

 

One of the biggest objectives I had in forming RENUA was to change that. I wanted to bring more women into politics, into our party, so that the interests of young mums, of young parents, would be heard. 

 

I believe that we need a revolution in childcare that is similar to that which occurred in secondary education in the sixties. Ireland, when it comes to how we look after children and their parents, is falling behind.

 

Parents are struggling under the burden of childcare and the second job that is needed to support huge mortgages incurred during the Celtic Tiger era.

 

That, for example, is why we decided a €500 million yearly tax credit for struggling parents - it is the biggest commitment in our manifesto because the problem is that serious.

 

One of my biggest battles in this regard is to get more women - more mums - into politics.

 

It is all very well and very true to say women’s voices aren’t listened to in Leinster House, but if you aren’t there who will go out of their way to hear you?  

 

 

In building RENUA I have found that many young mothers are attracted to politics. Young Mothers want to make a change. We are a practical hands-on people.

 

Yet at some point they swerve away; it is hard to blame them.

 

When it comes to ‘children’s’ issues, the lack of political engagement is understandable when, as one female minister pointed out, the cabinet is full of men who have never changed a nappy, let alone tried to manage the complexities of childcare and work.

 

The inability of Irish politics to move beyond the dream of the 1950’s stereotypical ideal family unit shows we are all formed by our experiences. 

 

I know the pang of leaving behind a small sleeping child in the morning.

 

Of knowing she will be disappointed when she wakes up and you are not there.

 

Or the sadness that comes from working late into the night knowing you will disappoint her by not arriving home in time.

 

I am not special in that regard. We all make choices and with those choices come consequences.

 

It is important to note that it is not just working parents who find the initial years difficult; I know how tough being a full-time parent in the home is too.

 

Of course we all know the delight a child brings too when you watch as he or she sleeps or laughs or plays.

 

Parenting is a choice too and it is on occasions, particularly when the child in question sleeps, a wondrous transforming experience.

 

My contention through all of this is that for the full potential of the child and the full potential of parenting itself to be secured, parents need to be helped, or at least to know and be assured help is available.

 

Mums need to know a hand-up is available.

 

For now, they are not going to get it from a Dáil that increasingly resembles a sort of sanctuary for those who are not fit for life as it is lived normally.

 

My ambition is to change this ... and to spend more time with Gwendolyn after the election.