Ireland has made no progress over women's role in politics

SEANAD DEBATE:IRELAND HAS made no measurable progress in relation to women's participation in political life in the last 15 years, Minister of State for Equality Mary White said.

Speaking during a Seanad debate on women’s involvement in politics, organised by Labour Senator Ivana Bacik, Ms White said there were six men to every woman in the Dáil and no political party had adequately addressed the issue.

Statistics showed women made up less than 14 per cent of women in the Dáil 15 years ago and still made up less than 14 per cent, leaving Ireland 10 percentage points behind the EU average.

“Over the past 15 years, female representation has increased significantly in almost all other EU member states. While the average participation rate for women elected to the lower house in all members states was 16 per cent in the mid-1990s, it has now increased to 24 per cent across the EU.”

Ms White was also critical of the “pint buying, hand shaking, funeral attendance and baby kissing” elements of the electioneering process in Ireland. Politicians should investigate how colleagues in other jurisdictions endeared themselves to their electorates in other ways, “which do not cost large sums of money”.

A report produced by Ms Bacik last November recommended candidate quota legislation to bring more women into Irish politics. It said parties should face financial penalties unless one-third of their candidates in the next general election were women.

Fine Gael leader in the Seanad Frances Fitzgerald said Ireland’s democracy was unfinished while women were so unrepresented in politics. Quotas could make up for “past discrimination”, she said, and the onus on those who opposed quotas was to produce evidence to show what else would work to improve the situation of female underrepresentation.

Fianna Fáil Senator Lisa McDonald said she previously did not believe in quotas but had changed her mind. She said 13 per cent of Fianna Fáil’s candidates in the last general election were women, which was “a far cry” from Ms Bacik’s proposal. She would question whether or not there was the political will in her own party to achieve this target.

Independent Senator David Norris praised Ms McDonald, saying that she “took on the people within the backwoods of her own party”, although he stressed this situation applied in all parties.