Our political system is not just anti-women, it’s worse than that – it’s anti-family

THE announcement that New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was going on maternity leave was unusual in that it hit world headlines for something that should be considered completely normal. It caused us once again to look at the Irish political system and ask why it is so hard to get women into, and to stay in, politics.

Being a public representative in the national parliament is a tough job in any democracy, but is Ireland an outlier? Statistics show that women make up 22pc of the Dáil, which puts us in the lower tier of European states for balanced gender representation.

In recognition of the unacceptable situation where TDs have to get sick certs to take time off to have a baby, Fianna Fáil TDs Niamh Smyth and Anne Rabbitte have introduced a bill to allow members of the Oireachtas to take 18 weeks of maternity leave. However, advances like maternity leave and an Oireachtas crèche do not address the problem that the Irish political system is not just anti-women, it is anti-family.

Reforms to encourage young parents into politics are mostly based on the misperception that a TD’s job entails them spending all their time in Leinster House. The reality is that most politicians have to defend their seat from the moment they win it. This means an enormous amount of additional policy, media and constituency work on top of legislative duties. The situation is worse for those who are lucky enough to be ministers.

We scoff at the tradition of TDs attending local funerals at the weekend, but if you log onto the social media channels of most new backbench TDs you will see that the funeral has been replaced with local GAA matches, Sunday fêtes, community festivals, charity events and so on. They all sound great but imagine a situation where you have to go to them and are trying to fit them in with bedtime, homework, cooking, family occasions and all the other responsibilities parents of young children need to juggle.

I don’t subscribe to the notion that our multi-seat proportional representation system is somehow worse than other systems. Just look at the current state of politics in the UK, US and some European countries. In any event, Irish voters have chosen twice to keep this as a core part of our political system. But we have to recognise it places additional burdens on our TDs.

As in any country, the obvious disincentive of any parent of young children seeking to be elected to national parliament is you have to overnight for at least two nights a week if you don’t live locally.

When politicians are elected, they are usually appointed as a spokesperson with a specific policy brief. You can then add on a requirement to attend breakfast briefings, conferences and field trips to keep on top of their brief.

You also have to be a good media communicator. It is no accident that most of the senior ministers cut their teeth on shows like TV3’s ‘Tonight with Vincent Browne’ and RTÉ’s ‘The Late Debate’. You can now add on a night-time routine that includes preparation for and participation in media.

The life of a TD is as challenging as any other with serious responsibilities. That’s the way it should be. Oireachtas members make the laws that shape our lives and our country – it is a huge

responsibility and shouldn’t be taken likely. But we need to recognise that the demands of our political system place huge stress on those who are parents.

There are current Oireachtas members of both sexes with young families who somehow manage to balance all these responsibilities.

However, many parents considering throwing their name forward at election time recognise the personal drawbacks and instead postpone that decision until their kids are older, by which time their window of opportunity has closed.

The growing trend in the private sector has been to introduce new policies and work practices to entice highly skilled and experienced parents to progressive companies.

Are there similar family-friendly measures to bring the Irish political system into the 21st century? Important initiatives like maternity benefit are a start and the Oireachtas can do a huge amount more to make its operations more manageable for parents. However, until we demand less of our national representatives’ personal time, many parents will opt for a career in the private sector where more is done to facilitate family life.

The demands of our political system place huge stress on those who are parents

Paul O’Brien is a director at Drury Porter Novelli and is a former special adviser to the Taoiseach