Court to make call over gender quotas
FF member launches appeal over ‘discrimination’
THE Supreme Court will sit later this month to decide whether to strike down gender quotas designed to boost the numbers of women in politics, the Irish Daily Mail has learned.
Currently, the ‘gender-balancing’ law punishes parties that fail to put forward at least 30% female candidates in general elections by halving their funding.
It also stipulates that from 2023 onwards, parties must put forward at least 40% female candidates. Those laws, in force since 2012, were later challenged in the High Court by Fianna Fáil’s Brian Mohan, the party’s Dublin Central chairman.
He lost his case two years ago, but is now taking the matter to the country’s highest court.
The Supreme Court is expected make a definitive decision on the issue before the year is out.
The High Court decided in February 2016 that Mr Mohan, 32, represented by barrister Michael McDowell, a former tánaiste, had no standing to take the case to court in the first place. In his lawsuit against the State, Mr Mohan claimed he was rejected as a potential candidate for the 2016 general election for Dublin Central because of the gender laws.
He said he was told following a meeting at Fianna Fáil headquarters that only one candidate would be selected from his constituency – and that this candidate would be a woman.
Mr Mohan feels that the 2012 laws amount to unfair discrimination.
He wants the Supreme Court to declare that the State has no role in determining ‘what type of person’ – whether male or female – sits in the Dáil.
But the State argues that the laws are necessary because women suffer from ‘chronic under-representation’ in the Dáil with only 18 females appointed to Cabinet since 1979 – from Máire Geoghegan Quinn, who was appointed Minister for the Gaeltacht in 1979 and later became Justice Minister, to Josepha Madigan, the current Culture Minister.
About 200 men have held ministerial posts in the same period. Women make up about 22% of the current Dáil.
The Mail has learned that the Supreme Court intends to sit on January 31 to hear Mr Mohan’s appeal.
First, the country’s most senior judges will have to decide if he ever had the right to mount the legal challenge himself.
It’s understood that if they decide that point in his favour, they will then have the option of deciding themselves if gender quotas should be kept or scrapped. Alternatively, they could send the issue back to the High Court to be re-examined from scratch.
When contacted by the Irish Daily Mail, Mr Mohan said he didn’t want to comment ahead of the imminent court hearing.