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THE GOVERNMENT PLANS to roll out a scheme that will give political parties additional funding to hire a diversity and equality officer if they run at least 30% female candidates in next year’s local elections.
The plan to incentivise rather than establish gender quotas for the 2019 local elections has been welcomed and criticised by some groups.
Women for Election, an Irish non-profit organisation which trains and encourage women to enter politics has welcomed the announcement.
Women for Election CEO Ciairín be Buis said May’s local elections could be a game-changer in terms of gender balance in Irish politics.
“Rewarding parties who help 2019′s results return better gender balance is a good place to start.”
Gender quotas
Quotas already operate at a national level and were first employed at the 2016 General Election.
Parties can lose State funding if they don’t reach a minimum threshold of female candidates. Currently, at least 30% of a party’s candidates in general elections must be women. This will rise to 40% in 2023.
In the current Dáil, the number of female TDs stands at 22.2% – an all-time high.
However, de Buis said quotas can be divisive tool for pushing gender equality, but added that they do work.
“Mexico’s recent election resulted in a 48% female incoming Congress. They introduced quotas in 1996,” said de Buis.
While Women for Election has welcomed the move, the National Women’s Council of Ireland has not been so forthcoming.
Writing in the Irish Independent today, its CEO Orla O’Connor hit out against government accusing it of being reluctant to show leadership when it comes to gender equality in Irish politics.
Agreeing with O’Connor, the Labour Spokesperson on Equality, Councillor Deirdre Kingston said gender quotas for local elections are needed.
“It makes sense that the most likely General Election candidates are those who have previous local election experience. To assist parties to deliver on the set targets, more women must be selected at a local level,” said Kingston.
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Gender quotas don’t work, any position be it in politics or business should be awarded to the person on merit and experience not on whether they are male or female.
@nick_d: yeah, it’s not like a party filled with lads would continue to only put lads forward creating an environment where no woman in her right mind would risk upsetting the apple cart.
Oh hey look, it’s Offaly County Council: https://www.offaly.ie/eng/Services/Your-Councils/Your-Councillors/
19 members with 19 members
@nick_d: exactly, Ive voted for both sexes but their gender was never a factor to me.
@nick_d: rubbish
The 129,364 genders won’t be happy about this
@McNulty Jimmy: if we go the way the English are it won’t matter at all what sex you are. Got males as women’s officer, males participating in the Jo Cox scheme for women, etc. It’s madness.
@McNulty Jimmy: Guffaw!
@McNulty Jimmy: I’m triggered!
@Veronica: there’s always a TERF
@Veronica: see you next Tuesday Ronnie
Gender quotas are part of the middle-class “feminist”, as exemplified by NWCI, obsession with the numbers of women holding high-prestige or high-paying posts. Their view of the world seems to be that it consists of mediocre men who are all SCs, government ministers, judges, journalists, playwrights, authors, senior civil servants, film directors and truckers while a vast assembly of vibrant, far more wonderful women are being excluded from joining in the party.
We live in a society that is a whole lot bigger and more complex than that.
When are we going to have gender quotas for bin crews? There’s a notable lack of females on bin lorries. And what about gender quotas for nursing? Women vastly outnumber men in this profession
@Rebekah Corbett:
Or as Ciara Kelly pointed out on news talk that you wouldn’t ask a man to breastfeed….. eh.. no Ciara… you wouldn’t!!
Surely, the parties that do not run at least 30% female candidates should get funding for an equality officer.
More taxpayers money being wasted on this nonsense. Political parties should be self-funding and should not get any taxpayers money. It’s a mean of giving an advantage to the insiders and keeping new parties out.
That’s great news…can I apply for that equality officer job….cheers…
The NWCI CEO has history on this, if she is so concerned about equality why doesn’t she address the gender imbalance in education. 90% female teachers as opposed to 10% male. There are as many men going for job interviews so why don’t they hire them so that it corrects the gender balance in teaching and then so many men wouldn’t be forced to look for a job in politics causing an imbalance there. Funny how you can use or ignore facts like this to suit one’s agenda as Orla keeps doing. She complained about the Hunky Dory ad a few years ago that the female in tight sports wear was being sexually exploited but refused to answer any questions related to the sexual exploitation of the fully naked man in the Malteasers ad when 2 women steal his clothes or the Diet Coke ad with women ogling him!!
What if men – as a group – are just more likely to be interested in politics. Might that explain the discrepancy in the gender balance among elected politicians. Just saying.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/jul/11/women-know-less-politics-than-men-worldwide
@Damon16: i would say most men and women in the Dail know very little about politics outside of the parish pump variety. I bet very few of them have ever read any of even the most basic books of political theory like On Liberty by John Stuart Mill or The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith…we have school teachers, trade unionists and gombeens in the Dail. None of them know anything about democracy or being part of a government of the people, by the people for the people. Irish politics is of the Party, by the Party, for the Party and nothing else. Thats the problem…not too few women. Too many Party toads licking up to those above them until they get high enough to get their behinds licked.
Equality of opportunity is already legislated for and is good . Equality of outcome , bad .
Well the boys have had a long run at it and haven’t got us too far so come on the girls!
@Benny: Mmmm! Margaret thatcher in power scared the be-jesus out of us
@Benny: the ones we have now aren’t much better.
“A scheme to give political parties additional funding”. More like an excuse for FF and FG to give themselves more money.
If micheal martin wasn’t paying himself an additional salary from party funds, FF would already have additional funding.
There is just so much wrong in this article. The woman at the end says the best candidates for general elections come from the pool of local politicians, they think a spell in local politics prepares them for running the country, but they fail to realize that all the damage our FF and FG led govs have done to the country, and why its in such a mess, has been down to gross incompetence from these same pool of people while in gov.
Surely this would incentivise them to not have 30% plus females running. They get rewarded with having to hire an insufferable nagger with with a warped view on the world.
Just a reminder that Offaly has 19 councillors and none of them have ever had to queue for a nightclub toilet. Laois meanwhile now have a total of 3 female councillors out of 19 following Jerry Lodge’s recent passing with his female replacement causing uproar that she was selected over the 8 other male applicants amid claims it was solely because of her gender resonating with voters… Imagine that, consternation because her selection was political…
@Ciarán Ó Fallúin: how many of the 19 councillors on Offaly county council were voted in by the electorate. It’s one thing in a general election where the constituency can be large and having party support is nearly a must but if you had a large family that voted for you you could get elected to the council.
@The next small thing: of the 19, 14 are from FF/FG/SF. The remaining 5 lads are all independents with a number of them formerly aligned to the above parties.
The argument that the electorate decides ignores the barrier to getting party support from the lads which would face women and then you’ve to sign up to be the odd one out. But, hey it’s equality of opportunity right? Have a look at the recent appointment of a woman to replace a vacated seat in Laois for an idea of the scale of the problem.
@Ciarán Ó Fallúin: Oh look here you are again, so lucky we have men like you policing these articles about women and to try and disparage any woman who has the nerve to question your point of view
I keep getting bombarded in my email from those with privilege complaining why these quotas don’t help men in female dominated fields… We are privileged quotas serve women as we are oppressing them.. that’s why we must carry the burden..infact perhaps men need to be taxed heavier than women.
Gender quotas are a disgrace.best person for the job that’s it.
Gender quotas are so ridiculous.
You have 10 openings for jobs. There are 100 qualified men and 10 qualified women. There is no way that the top 5 out of 10 of the women will be equally the “best” for the job compared with the top 5 out of 100 for the men. Put them into a pool and look for the top 10. If it is one women or 10, great. Merit and qualifications are the deciding factor. Quotas are derogatory to women. I would not want a job that was not based on my merit.
If women want to go into politics, great. If they do not, leave ‘em off.
Gender quotas really must upset FF, they just don’t like women in that party.
@Barry Somers: That’s only true if you look at any of the available recent and historic evidence.
No, no ,no.
There is no shortage of female party activists.
This is just another handout to the party system.
The problem is that women are not getting on the ticket i.e. in the main parties it is men that get on the ticket. So if no women on ticket no women elected. Fact that when women put on ticket they elected in proportion to their male colleagues. Women not being put forward as candidates is the problem. Women have only recently got the vote, allowed to get a degree in university– in the space of things
@Mairéad Phelan: That’s not really true. Women and Men have had equal voting rights since the establishment of the Free State in 1922. I agree that we need more women in politics but they should get in for being a good politicians with good policy ideas and not because of their gender alone.
Choosing a candidate because of what genitals they have is an appalling abuse of diplomacy. It also ensures the best candidate misses out because we have a quota. Is this how we want our country run
Zzzzzzzzzzz
Gender quotas would be clearly unconstitutional. If the government were to announce that parties must field candidates with XYZ characteristics, it would be immediately struck down in court. As here, it is made a condition of funding. I still doubt it would survive a court challenge, though that would be a very politically incorrect thing to do. Ironically, state funding of parties was introduced to prevent undue external influence being brought to bear. And then it was used exactly for that.
They should have an equality officer anyway . . .
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