The President, Mrs McAleese, has expressed disappointment that significant pressures on family life caused by women's great participation in the workforce still keep women from full participation in political life, boardroom life and in all the places where decisions are made that affect the quality of our lives.

Speaking at the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) lunch to celebrate International Women's Day yesterday, the President warned that, as a society, we ignore these issues and problems at our peril.

"If we want to get the best from our labour force and the best for our society, we all have a vested interest in, and a responsibility for, ensuring that appropriate support systems exist, so men and women can achieve a balanced participation in both work and family life, and that one aspect does not gain or overwhelm at the expense of the other."

The President said that the vast majority of women are still living with attitudes and restrictions like those that existed here a century ago and that our world is hugely impoverished by the way their individual and collective talents are wasted.

"In Ireland, we are beginning to feel the huge surge of power, energy and focus that occurs when a country flies on two wings instead of one. There is colossal work to be done in bringing that same surge of energy to our globe through the full social inclusion of women worldwide."

She noted that, as Ireland held its EU Presidency role, it was representing the EU in New York at a meeting of the UN Commission on the Status of Women. The Commission is overseeing the implementation of the Beijing Platform Action, which sets out an agenda for the empowerment of women worldwide.

"It strives to achieve the removal of all obstacles to women's active participation in public and private life and is, therefore, very important to all of society, if we want to fly firmly on two wings," she said.

Monies raised from the lunch went to Women's Aid.