Edition Bobbett2. Speeches and statements by Elizabeth F. Bobbett
1953 Glenealy, By-election Meeting
Source: Wicklow People, 25.04.1953
Miss Bobbett thanked the people of Glenealy district for the support given her in having her returned successfully in the County Council election. She had feared at that time when asked to go forward with Mr. Charles W. Hudson, that between two stools both would come to the ground, but the electors had gone beyond their expectations and returned them both. She assured them that if they showed the same confidence in her by returning her at this election to An Dail she would, as in the County Council, do her best to see justice done to all sections of the community. She outlined the four main points in her policy, and said that endeavouring to curb Government and Local Government expenditure it was her hope and desire to reduce taxes and rates and thereby reduce the cost of living. She was a completely independent candidate in this contest, and for this reason, being also a woman, she made an especial appeal to the women voters on the register. She wanted their No. 1 vote and their fullest support as well.
While they had women deputies in both big parties in An Dail, she emphasised that these deputies were tied to their party affiliation, and they often had to vote against their consciences and against the interests of their own womenfolk. For instance, she said, she had been ashamed of those women deputies when not one of them voted on the recent motion in An Dail for “equal pay for equal work for women and single men.” It took as many years study, the same fees, the same exams, for a girl to qualify as a doctor, solicitor, barrister, for the bank and local government positions as it did for menfolk, but when any of these positions came to be advertised a much lower salary was announced for the woman who was to be employed than for the man. Neither had they ever heard of any of these women protesting against increasing prices of essentials, against the price for flour and wholemeal in the rural areas where it was 4d a stone dearer than in the city.
There was too much State interference, said Miss Bobbett, in the lives and employment of the people. There was too much dictation from the various Government Departments. For instance, they must build cottages according to the size that was directed by the officials of the Department of Local Government, which in many cases meant that they could not build the usual or most suitable type of cottage for a particular applicant or place. Cottages now carry too high a rent for rural workers to pay. Even the Department of Agriculture has begun to interfere and dictate, as for instance, they now lay down that the pig-producer cannot keep a spotted pig and more, nor can the County Committee of Agriculture give preference in their employment to a County Wicklow resident as agricultural Instructor. These and many other things that there is no need to perpetuate should be removed, and thus make for less interference with the people, and the less they interfered, the more contented the community would be in their occupations, the more successful and the more progressive.