Pat Kenny on The Frontline (Monday 11 April, 2011) discussed quotas with Camille Loftus (NWCI) and John Waters. Listening to the audience and indeed John Waters, I think that there is a general misunderstanding of gender quotas.
To watch the programme click on the link:
http://www.rte.ie/news/av/2011/0411/thefrontline.html
A few of the 5050-group members attended the Irish Mace Final in UCC last Friday night. The motion was entitled “That this house would introduce gender quotas of 50% in Dáil Eireann” and four teams participated (UCC, UCD and two from TCD). The eight well-dressed and polished team-members delivered powerful speeches on the topic, but it was a pity that the acoustics in the Honan chapel muffled quite a lot of what was being said. The exception was when the only female out of the eight students took the stand and spoke in favour of the motion – her performance was excellent and she was rightly crowned champion together with her male team-mate! I know that I’m biased but the arguments against introducing quotas were just flat and unconvincing – no offense to the teams who made the effort to oppose the motion!
