Gender quotas fail to shake up Irish politics
A DECADE after the imposition of gender quotas Ireland has plunged out of the top 100 places in the world when it comes to representation of the sexes in politics, a European study has found.
Currently, 30% of all candidates for the Dáil (but not for the council or Seanad) must be female or male within parties.
Plans to increase this to 40% have drawn complaints from the main parties of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, who both struggled past the 30% threshold in election 2020.
Intriguingly, despite the imposition of the quotas, figures secured by the Irish ‘Women For Election’ group from the European parliament have revealed that as of February 2021, Ireland had fallen to 101st in the latest world rankings for the number of female parliamentarians.
It has left the State lagging behind such countries as Afghanistan, Iraq, and China, and just ahead of Panama and Ukraine.
Women For Election said the figures showed ‘a clear and pressing need for more women to be supported to run for the next local and general elections’.
At present, only 23% of TDs are women and there are no women at all on two-fifths of the Cabinet sub-committees, including the key sub-committee on coronavirus.
Women For Election said of the latter: ‘Effectively, this means that decisions about health and the Covid-19 response are being made without the experience and perspective of half the population.’
The democratic gender deficit is even more serious at council level, where just 25% of seats are held by women.
Caitríona Gleeson, CEO of Women For Election, said: ‘Diversity in representation, leads to better decision making. Ireland clearly needs more women in positions of leadership particularly in our local councils and in our Dáil.’
Sinn Féin TD Louise O’Reilly said: ‘The figures indicate the scale of work required to get more women, and more women with the right politics, into Irish politics.’
She added: ‘Politics – and the Cabinet especially – also needs more members of the Traveller community, people with disabilities and those living in direct provision or overcrowded accommodation.’