Is Leo in denial over state of Dail sexism?

It’s easy to rush to a simple conclusion that there isn’t much sexism in Leinster House - and that the sort of misconduct being highlighted in Hollywood and Westminster is somehow totally absent in Kildare Street.
In my five years around Leinster House I can’t say I’ve ever been privy to any serious allegations of wrongdoing against female colleagues or public representatives. Then again, as a straight white male, I am much more likely to resemble the offender than the offended.

But I am aware of countless situations where men around Leinster House have made throwaway comments to women, whether maliciously intended or not, which have deeply wounded those women and silently chipped away at their ability to going about their work, whether that be reporting or representing. That’s why it’s disappointing to hear Leo Varadkar’s throwaway comment on Monday, when he said Leinster House was a safe place for women to work - but then admitted there was a “macho culture”, where TDs were shouted at for trying to speak in the Dáil.

For this he blamed Sinn Fein and other left-wing parties. Journalists shouldn’t take sides but it’s not partisan to point out that most of the interruptions in the Dáil are directed towards female TDs, irrespective of their party. Mary Lou McDonald says her Budget speech a few years ago was interrupted 75 times (she points to Dáil transcripts as proof). That’s one interruption every 24 seconds.
A bigger concern, though, is that the Taoiseach appears to be equating the cut-and-thrust of parliamentary politics with the much more serious problem of sexual predatory behaviour inside Leinster House. One hopes that Varadkar’s comments are simply an ill-advised attempt to score points from the opposition, on a subject that demands more. If it’s a sign of the Taoiseach keeping his head in the sand, we ought to be a bit more worried.

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