Five years after making many promises at a UN conference in Beijing, China, the Government still hasn't even drawn up an action plan for women's rights. This week delegates from the west of Ireland are among those pushing for immediate action at a special session of the UN General Assembly in New York.
Ms Marian Flannery of Women of the North-West and Ms Joy McCormick of the Irish Countrywomen's Association arrived in New York this weekend, as part of an Irish non-governmental organisation (NGO) team led by the National Women's Council of Ireland. Banulacht and Women's Aid are also accredited for both an "alternative" gathering of lobbyists and the UN special session today.
Leading the Government's delegation to the UN special session - billed as "Beijing plus 5" - is the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, who will have to defend Ireland's lack of progress. It was one of his predecessors, Mr Mervyn Taylor, who signed up to 12 specific promises agreed in Beijing, aimed at removing obstacles to women's equality worldwide.
Those promises were wide-ranging, and represented the Beijing Platform for Action. Ireland was one of 189 governments which swore it would alleviate the increasing and persistent burden of poverty on women; and which made 11 other commitments relating to access to health services, elimination of violence against women, promotion of economic rights, provision of equal access to training and education, and access to power structures and decision-making; elimination of sexual stereotyping; and protection of the rights of the girl child.
To date, this Government has failed to deliver, according to eight Irish NGOs, which presented the Minister for Justice with a report last week. "Women's human rights continue to be neglected, both in Ireland and throughout the world," Ms Mary Kelly, deputy chair of the National Women's Council of Ireland (NWCI), told him when she handed him a copy of Promises Made - Promises Broken: Beijing plus 5 alternative report for Ireland.
Ms Niamh Reilly, vice-chairwoman of Women's Aid, outlined the facts relating to lack of progress: women in Ireland still earn only 76 per cent of male earnings, while paying more for childcare than in any other European country; a high degree of "misogyny" and systematic exclusion of women was identified in a recent report on working conditions in the Civil Service.
Women hold less than 12 per cent of elected government seats; some 8,000 women experiencing male violence contact Women's Aid annually for assistance; there are only 97 refuge spaces for such women nationwide; and the conviction rate in the small percentage of such violent incidents which do get to court - cases of rape - is only 5 per cent, Ms Reilly said.
Maeve Taylor of Banulacht outlined the global view: two-thirds of the world's poor are female. She said the Government's national plan for implementing the Beijing Platform for Action must have in-built targets and monitoring systems, and added that it would only have local impact and long-term effect if women's groups, networks and organisations were given sufficient resources to play a crucial role.
Promises Made - Promises Broken does acknowledge some "slow" and "piecemeal" advances at official level, but notes the serious situation of older women and lone parents living in poverty or at risk.
Among the 75 recommendations made to the Government are an increased investment in women's health, decisive action to eliminate persistent barriers to equality, and recognition and value of women's unpaid work in the home and the community. It also recommends a system of supports that affords women real choice on whether to pursue caring work in the home or in paid employment, and setting up national satellite household accounts to measure women's unpaid work.
If the Government has fallen down, there is a still a positive side to the Beijing experience, according to Marian Flannery, who was one of the large Irish grouping which travelled to China five years ago.
"Five years ago there were six or seven women's groups in west Sligo and north Mayo, whereas now there are 25," she said. "Five years ago we didn't have a dentist in Belmullet, and now we have a Western Health Board women's health plan, osteoporosis screening and, most recently, an excellent conference in Westport on violence against women which was attended by all the official bodies. What's more, the health board is coming to Geesala in north Mayo later this month to find out what is needed there."
It was while talking to other women, mingling with others at the NGO Forum in Huairou, outside Beijing, that she picked up the idea for a leadership project. This has been run over the past three years with EU and State funding in Moygownagh, Co Mayo, taking groups of 15 women at a time.
"Five years ago, I would never have imagined that I could be arguing for specific programmes for rural women, such as the need for training to cope with the displacement from agriculture, but now I can," Marian Flannery said.
She looks back on a "very powerful" five years in terms of change. Advances, mainly in education, training and health, have been "slow, costly and not very visible", and there was not a little help from the former EU commissioner, Mr Padraig Flynn. She does not want to raise expectations, but believes empowerment is a key. And if little progress is made among UN member-states at international level in New York, collecting new ideas will have "made the trip worthwhile".