Miriam Lord: Poor Roderic O’Gorman had to open Women’s Day debate to Dáil’s empty brown leather pop-up seats

Don’t know about you, but the crippling suspense ruined our weekend. Monday went on forever. Fretting over who would be the next chair of RTÉ. It reminded us of that tense time when a breathless nation waited to learn who would inherit the Riverdance woman’s mantle. That job went to the film studio/TG4 woman.

Everybody forgot who she was until Ryan Tubridy’s emoluments exploded. Even then, Siún Ní Raghallaigh remained a low-key member of the cast of the never-ending RTÉ drama which followed. But the Minister for Media, Catherine Martin, changed all that when she controversially pushed her out just 13 months after appointing her.

Speculation mounted over who would be selfless/brave/bonkers enough to step forward to take the role. Oh, the indifference!

Tuesday morning ended the misery. Terence O’Rourke, bean-counter extraordinaire and current chair of the ESB, is stepping into Siún’s shoes, now considerably stretched under the wheels of a bus. He has a lovely head of wavy, swept-back boardroom hair.

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On the morning of his installation, questions were asked again in the Dáil about the manner of the former chair’s departure and Martin’s role in it. This arose after Ní Raghallaigh fired off a rocket on Monday putting her side of the story and casting doubt on the Minister’s account of what happened.

Despite having made a full statement in the House on the matter last week, Opposition TDs deemed this latest twist significant enough to demand her presence in the chamber again, this time to answer direct questions.

She sat, arms defiantly folded, looking straight ahead, as Sinn Féin whip Padraic MacLochlainn, Labour leader Ivana Bacik, Catherine Murphy of the Social Democrats, Richard Boyd-Barrett of People Before Profit, and Mattie McGrath of the Rural Independents called on the Taoiseach to make this happen.

In a roundabout way, Leo Varadkar said no. That’s it, so.

On to the main event of the Dáil day, which took up most of the afternoon.

Is it that time of the year again?

Poor Roderic got to his feet and commenced his delivery of the opening speech. Sometimes it feels like he is the minister for everything. Where does he get the time to do so much?

O’Gorman has no choice, really, because a Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth’s work is never done. Multitasking O’Gorman will have had the sympathy of the half-dozen women who came into the chamber to hear him. (They didn’t really, as all of them were first on the list and due to speak).

Apart from him, there wasn’t one other bloke on the benches. For this was the annual box-ticking non-box office attraction that is the traditional reading out of the statements to mark International Women’s Day.

The Leas Ceann Comhairle signalled the start of the talking and the duration of the session: “Two hours and 27 minutes”, announced Catherine Connolly to the emptiness beyond. Good luck with that.

Poor Roderic, script in hand, gamely launched into the Government’s pitch for a Yes/Yes vote in Friday’s referendums. Friday is International Women’s Day. He addressed his words to a completely deserted Dáil.

“I’d like to begin my statement today by welcoming all present to the Dáil chamber and wishing everybody, particularly my female colleagues, a Happy International Women’s Day,” he said to the brown leather pop-up seats opposite.

At least they don’t answer back.

“International Women’s Day is a significant day and a reminder of my department’s mission of working towards a fair, equal and inclusive society where rights are respected and everyone can reach their full potential. In particular, empowering women and girls is a key priority of Ireland’s domestic and foreign policy with an overarching goal of creating a fairer and more sustainable society,” he continued, raising his head and talking to the wall.

All of a sudden, Rose Conway-Walsh raced into the chamber and dived into a Sinn Féin front-row seat. Labour leader Ivana Bacik followed hot on her heels. At one point, Roderic had a rapt audience of six women. Ivana, on her own, and Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, surrounded by a supportive doughnut of the Shinner sisterhood.

Mary Lou spoke next, sharing her time with Rose, Imelda Munster and Louise O’Reilly. Sorcha Clarke joined them. They were followed by the Labour leader, who did not enjoy a similarly supportive doughnut from the absent Labour lads.

But neither did Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns. Perhaps her opinion of this annual set-piece deterred her fellow TDs – three women and two men – from venturing into the chamber. “We can all recycle and reuse our speaking notes from a year ago because the same problems remain. So, here I go again,” she began. IWD is a day of celebration but “it’s also an exercise in frustration year on year, raising the same issues”.

For the duration of the statements, attendance rarely rose above the half dozen. Speakers did their thing and left.

No Minister, apart from Poor Roderic, spoke. Not one joined him in solidarity. Two Government backbenchers contributed: Fine Gael’s Emer Higgins and Fianna Fáil’s John McGuinness.

There was a steady stream of Sinn Féin speakers, all but two of them women. People Before Profit were among the many who remembered the suffering of women in Gaza while speakers for the Rural Independents outlined why they were looking for a No vote in the referendums. A small number of Independents contributed, including Catherine Connolly and Violet-Anne Wynne.

Verona Murphy spoke about the inadequacy of mental health support services for families and teens, becoming emotional when she told of the experience of one young woman in her Wexford constituency.

Despite a decent Opposition effort, the debate ran out of steam a half an hour short of the allotted time.

It was deja vu for the Minister as he made his concluding remarks to a near deserted Dáil. Apart from a handful of Sinn Féin TDs there were no other deputies present to hear his words. And those taking the bare look off proceedings were arriving for the next item on the agenda – a SF motion on supporting carers and people with disabilities.

Taking this debate was the ever-present Roderic, although he made good his escape after he was joined by Anne Rabbitte, the Minister of State in his department.

It might come as some comfort to women – if they were inclined to care – that this debate was as poorly attended as the previous statements on International Women’s Day. Then again, it was about carers (primarily women) and people with disabilities (many of whom are women).

At least this time there were fewer toe-curling contributions from TDs thanking the women in their lives for helping them become the men they are today and making their offices run like clockwork. And there were no mortifying shout-outs to the mammies and the missuses.

Those two hours of speechifying on Tuesday afternoon will make not one whit of difference to the lives of women here or anywhere else. Nobody in Dáil Éireann thought otherwise.

But the box has been ticked. Job done for another year.

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