Madam, – Ivana Bacik (Opinion, August 5th) clearly outlines the case for increasing the numbers of women entering politics.
What is not so clear, then, is why so many female TDs were against the idea when asked. Could it be they fear an erosion of their vote in their constituencies if another woman is on the ballot paper? We can only speculate.
However, one thing is clear. If gender quotas are to be introduced, then they should not help further the strong dynastic tradition of the Irish electoral system.
Selecting the daughter of a former TD instead of (or possibly, even in addition to) the son to run for the Dáil will make no difference in bringing about any real change in Irish politics. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I welcome the debate (Home News, August 5th) about the participation of women in Irish politics. For far too long politics has been seen as a male dominated profession.
As the recently appointed Minister for Equality I want to see a rapid change in getting more women elected into the Houses of the Oireachtas.
There is no space for trivialisation of the issue and there is no “I’m alright Jill” attitude, the Jills already elected are acutely aware that they need company.
The difference between Susan McKay of the NWC (National Women’s Council) and myself is the methodology of how to accomplish this.
I fully believe that if women are targeted by their political parties we would see a greater number of women getting involved in all aspects of political life. Quotas alone won’t do it.
There are many reasons why women don’t go into politics, not least among them the perceived impression of the body politic, which the banning of corporate donations in the autumn will go some way to redeeming.
It is much more than that. We have found that the five key obstacles to women’s greater involvement in politics are childcare issues, cash flow, confidence, culture and candidate selection procedures.
In July I convened my first meeting with general secretaries of the political parties with the sole aim of increasing women’s involvement in politics in Ireland.
Over my time in this office I will be pushing ahead with this work as outlined in the National Women’s Strategy 2007-2016 as well as the work initiated by the Joint Oireachtas Committee Report on Women in Politics towards addressing these five key issues. – Yours, etc,