More women ‘around the table’ would have lessened financial crisis – Taoiseach

The financial crisis may not have been as bad if there had been more women around the table making decisions at the time, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.

On day 22 of the campaign, speaking in St Joseph’s College in Lucan about his plans to address gender issues he told students that if he was re-elected he wanted to focus on the issue of the gender pay gap.

“It’s still the case in Ireland that women get paid less than men,” he said. “That’s not right. That’s not fair. It has arisen for a lot of different issues.”

He said it was a fact that “jobs traditionally held by women are paid less than jobs generally held by men even today” and said it is harder for women to “get a fair crack of the whip when it comes to promotions in particular”.

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“That is something that I want to change and transform as part of the next government if I have the privilege to lead it.”

Mr Varadkar also said he would like to see a female taoiseach in the future and noted that there has not been a female minister for finance or foreign affairs yet.

If there had been more women around the table making decisions at the time, the financial crisis may not have been as bad, he said.

He also said increased rivalry between constituency colleagues as the general election campaign nears its end is “natural” and “normal”.

Rivalry

In recent days rows over constituency divides have broken out, including within Fine Gael in Meath East between the election teams of ministers Helen McEntee and Regina Doherty as the party scrambles to save seats across the country.

“We are into the last couple of days of the election campaign and it is absolutely natural and normal to think that there’s going to be rivalry among candidates, and that always happens the last couple of days of the campaign, and I’m sure it’s happening in all parties.”

He also stood by Fine Gael’s campaign message which focused heavily on the risks associated with Brexit and the economy.

This is despite the fact that only a small percentage of voters have listed both these issues as their top concerns in this election.

“Fine Gael’s campaign is about the future and it’s there in our slogan ‘a future to look forward to’. That is about making sure that people feel the strength of our economy in their pockets.

“That’s why we have our fair tax plan to reduce taxes on middle incomes, it is also about Brexit because Brexit isn’t done yet, and negotiating that trade deal is going to be crucial to our economic future. We can’t invest in health and housing in the way we need to if we don’t have that deal. And it’s also about the cost of living and reducing the cost of living for people.

“So our strategy and our focus has been entirely about what we can do for the country over the next five years. But let’s see, nobody’s voted yet and the votes will be counted on Sunday,” Mr Varadkar said.