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Leo Varadkar with his new junior ministers. Leah Farrell

'Leo models himself on Macron and Trudeau, but he's not living up to them when it comes to gender balance'

Who runs the world… girls?

THE NEW TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar has been criticised for appointing fewer females than Enda Kenny to junior ministry roles.

He faced similar criticism last week when Labour’s Joan Burton described the Cabinet reshuffle as a “bad day for women”.

Of the 34 positions that Varadkar had to fill, seven are female.

With women appointed to just four senior Cabinet positions, this number remains the same as the number appointed to the previous Cabinet.

Mary Mitchell O’Connor was the only casualty in Leo Varadkar’s Cabinet reshuffle, demoted from Minister for Jobs to super junior minister for higher education.

Arts Minister Heather Humphreys also had her ministerial portfolio reduced, with rural affairs being transferred to newly appointed Minister Michael Ring.

The number of women appointed to Minister of State positions remains at three out of 19. Marcella Corcoran Kennedy lost her junior ministry today.

Orla O’Connor, Director of National Women’s Council of Ireland said the numbers are stark.

“It is disappointing that in this 32nd Dáil which houses the highest number of women TDs ever elected, that we are not seeing similar increases in the numbers of women in senior decision-making positions.

“Only 18 women have been appointed to Cabinet since Countess Markievicz became Minister for Labour in 1919. This is one woman less than the current number of Ministers for State,” she said.

O’Connor said it is crucial there be a whole of Cabinet approach to prioritising policies of women’s equality.

Female TDs and senators were also not happy with the numbers. It’s understood the matter will be raised at the Oireachtas Women’s Caucus in the coming weeks.

Speaking in the Seanad today, Senator Ivana Bacik said she is “hugely disappointed” to see the lack of commitment to ensuring we have a more balanced gender representation among Cabinet and junior Ministers.

She said:

Many of us thought that the Taoiseach might use the junior minister appointments today as a means of addressing the imbalance that exists in the Cabinet.
It is very disappointing that there was not more promotion of women in the Cabinet, but in the junior Minister appointments the Taoiseach has missed an opportunity by demoting one very able woman and by not promoting any new women into the ranks of the junior ministers.
For one who has very overtly and explicitly modelled himself on Emmanuel Macron and Justin Trudeau I believe it is a terrible shame the Taoiseach has missed this opportunity.
Those two leaders in France and Canada have explicitly moved to ensure better gender representation in their Cabinets by their choice of ministers.

Bacik said it “is a real shame and a real missed opportunity” that Varadkar has not done the same in Ireland.

In a statement, Labour Women condemned the Taoiseach’s failure to promote women, describing it as “a shameful decision which really shows our Taoiseach’s true colours when it comes to liberal values”.

Chair of Labour Women Sinéad Ahern said following gender quotas, the highest ever number of women were elected last year.

Taoiseach Varadkar wasn’t exactly stuck for choice when it came to considering women from his own party.

“For a man of his generation to be leading the country he had a real opportunity to lead the way in promoting women in the workplace, and it’s shocking that he didn’t,” added Ahern.

A government source described the criticism as “unfair” and pointed out that Regina Doherty and Helen McEntee have both been promoted to “very important roles”. They added that people are appointed on merit.

“Fine Gael are the party of gender quotas,” said the source.

It is understood that it is the party and the Taoiseach’s hope to increase representation of women in the Dáil.

Read: Proposals to limit smaller party speaking times is ‘attempt to silence radical voices’ in Dáil>

Read: Commissioner refuses to name retired officer who was signatory on ‘suspicious’ account>

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68 Comments
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    Mute O'Reilly
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    Jun 16th 2014, 7:57 AM

    Fair play to them…

    133
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    Mute Martin Ryan
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    Jun 16th 2014, 8:29 AM

    Every bit as important as the nurse or doctor the utmost respect should be shown to cleaners doing the jobs no one else wants to, or thinks they are to good for.

    131
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    Mute Joseph Siddall
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    Jun 16th 2014, 8:34 AM

    If the Marketing Dept didn’t show up for a week, virtually no-one would notice. If the cleaners didn’t, the whole company would know about it.
    They’re real people doing a job. Be nice to ‘em.

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    See 4 more replies ▾
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    Mute Shane Walsh
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    Jun 16th 2014, 10:16 AM

    Joseph I couldn’t agree more..

    32
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    Mute Joseph Siddall
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    Jun 16th 2014, 1:44 PM

    Presume the red thumbs are the considered input from the small minority of Marketing people who just know that the western world revolves around them. Or other deluded souls. Cleaners are amongst the most important people in any organisation and you really should get to know them if you want to know what’s going on in a company. Being “invisible” they see and hear things that those further up the food chain do not. Also on my list are Receptionists, Secretaries and Security………the good ones in each category, at least. The old fashioned tea lady was a brilliant source of information, but now sadly disappeared. The modern coffee machine sees all, hears all and says nowt – and the tea is usually cr4p. Treat everyone with respect on your way up, ‘cos you never know who you might meet on the way down.

    21
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    Mute Noel Peare
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    Jun 16th 2014, 1:58 PM

    Well if you will try to get tea from a coffee machine you have to expect poor results

    18
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    Mute Joseph Siddall
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    Jun 16th 2014, 2:25 PM

    Noel, well spotted. Probably explains my abiding dislike of machine-made tea. :-)

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    Mute Thors Big Hammer
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    Jun 16th 2014, 8:39 AM

    Tough thankless job.

    90
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    Mute Summer Bay Devil
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    Jun 16th 2014, 7:49 AM

    We need more Lemon Pledge

    88
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    Mute Liam
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    Jun 16th 2014, 8:16 AM

    I only notice good looking cleaners to be honest…

    61
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    Mute Summer Bay Devil
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    Jun 16th 2014, 8:23 AM

    Meeester Superman no home

    31
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    Mute Shane Walsh
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    Jun 16th 2014, 8:53 AM

    I have the utmost respect for cleaners, very hard working people doing jobs that many would turn there nose up at.

    82
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    Mute Simon Barnes
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    Jun 16th 2014, 8:08 AM

    Cant miss our cleaner . She’s fit as fcuk :-)

    72
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    Mute Robbie Doyle
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    Jun 16th 2014, 9:00 AM

    Reminds me of a song Ewan MacColl wrote about his mother called Nobody Knew She Was There, heartbreaking stuff.

    Glistening sheen of new-washed floors is fading, There where office clocks are marking time, Night’s black tide has ebbed away By cliffs of glass awash with day, She hurries from her labours still unseen.

    31
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    Mute Glangan
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    Jun 16th 2014, 9:30 AM

    Thanks for doing your job – well done!

    29
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    Mute Julian King
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    Jun 16th 2014, 9:24 AM

    But who’ll give recognition to the cleaners of these venues being used to give recognition to cleaners?

    20
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    Mute Justin Moran
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    Jun 16th 2014, 7:58 AM

    Great to see this given some profile but that was 1990, not 1900, when striking janitors were attacked in Los Angelus.

    19
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    Mute Jay Warner
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    Jun 16th 2014, 10:38 AM

    What about the legions of Cleaners working in Hotels, restaurants, shops and offices etc? Typical of SIPTU to just cherry pick their own little inch of the world and ignore everyone else.

    17
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    Mute david journal
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    Jun 16th 2014, 10:29 AM

    Cabin crew giving out last week, cleaners this week, why cant people just go to work and do the job without needing a parade about it.
    Its your job, just do it and be quite.

    17
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    Mute art vandelay
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    Jun 16th 2014, 9:33 AM

    Mr. Lippman: It’s come to my attention that you and the cleaning woman have engaged in sexual intercourse on the desk in your office. Is that correct?
    George Costanza: Who said that?
    Mr. Lippman: She did.
    George Costanza: [pause] Was that wrong? Should I not have done that? I tell you, I gotta plead ignorance on this thing, because if anyone had said anything to me at all when I first started here that that sort of thing is frowned upon… you know, cause I’ve worked in a lot of offices, and I tell you, people do that all the time.

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    Mute JGermanotta26
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    Jun 16th 2014, 11:21 PM

    Cleaners are the tiny wheels that keep the clock working. Without them it just wouldn’t work.

    Nice people know we all have a part to play, how dare anyone assume they are more ‘worthwhile’ based on their title ~ usually lazy buggers who wouldn’t work on batteries, prancing around looking more important than they are!

    This day for justice and to encourage respect for the cleaners is long overdue

    5
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    Mute Jho Harris
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    Jun 16th 2014, 11:29 AM

    @ Joseph Siddall I agree 100% and have been saying that for years.
    @ David Journal. Do your job and be quite what? or did you mean quiet? Hope your job does not include journalism as your user name suggests or you have made a right laughing stock of yourself, you see they are not giving out. If you read the article you will see that this “It’s a celebration, not a protest” There are no big or complicated works for you to look up in their quote ” “We are often invisible to the public. Yet without the work we do, many of our most important facilities including hospitals, railway stations and universities simply could not function. This day is about reminding people about the value of our work in society.”

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    Mute david journal
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    Jun 16th 2014, 11:40 AM

    I misspelled a word, what a laughing stock I must look. In your simple little world maybe.
    There cleaners, they want a day of appreciation, ridiculous notions, just get on with there jobs.

    4
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    Mute That's a paddlin'
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    Jun 16th 2014, 11:57 AM

    *They’re cleaners and *their jobs.

    20
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    Mute Jho Harris
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    Jun 16th 2014, 10:14 PM

    @ David Journal. You know nothing about my world and I aim to keep it that way, I do try to keep it simple or at least uncomplicated but it is not little. I suspect your use of the word Journal in your user name does anything but reflect your skills as you have and my comment was not just about misspelling a word it also alluded to your begrudgery.

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    Mute Paddy Hannigan
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    Jun 16th 2014, 10:50 PM

    “Bonjour, je m’appelle Victor, Nettoyeur.”

    Oh!! Not that sort of cleaner.

    1
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