Three out of 13 ain’t bad?
THE Kerry ballot paper could have been very different if Cllrs Aoife Thornton and Toiréasa Ferris has been added to the ballot paper for GE2020.
Cllr Ferris had been added to the ticket instead of her father, Martin Ferris, and was expected to retain that seat in the county for her party.
However, she pulled out of the Dáil race in June and ultimately quit politics in August, giving her council seat to Conor Foley. She cited family commitments as one of her main reasons for leaving politics. Her shock decision to leave politics demonstrates the difficulty of combining politics and family.
Cllr Ferris had been in politics for 16 years, so it was no easy decision to opt out, but family came first. Cllr Aoife Thornton was courted by the Fine Gael party as their North Kerry candidate but, ultimately, she chose not to run for general election, also citing family commitments among her reasons.
This left the door open for Cllr Mike Kennelly and left the FG party without any female candidate in Kerry.
Raising children and maintaining family life can be extremely difficult in politics both for men and for women.
Without doubt it is difficult for any father to be away from home as a TD but the burden can be even worse for women, as much of the childcare concerns remain on their shoulders.
Gender quotas have long been highlighted as a solution, and while there are arguments for and against the introduction of a 30-per-cent quota of either gender into each party nationally, female representation has increased so, on the face of it, gender quotas have helped.
If parties do not meet this quota, they lose out on state funding.
In Kerry, almost 25 per cent of candidates this time around are female, with Fianna Fáil choosing two female candidates in Kerry – Cllr Norma Moriarty and Cllr Norma Foley – while the Green party candidate is Cleo Murphy.
Last time, this was 20 per cent: again, three female candidates, but a higher number of overall candidates.
Nationally 31 per cent of candidates in the 39 constituencies are female.
There are 530 candidates in the election – 162 of them women.
This is also the first time ever that there is a female candidate contesting in every constituency.
Fine Gael is just over the 30-per-cent quota, with 30.5 per cent of their candidates being women. Fianna Fáil and Labour are marginally better at 31 per cent and 32 per cent in the national stakes.