The 5050 Group in the North West sent out a series of questions relating to women’s equal representation to the 2016 General Election Candidates in Donegal and Sligo-Leitrim.
Below are the questions with the candidate responses.
| Donegal 2016 General Election Candidate: Pádraig Mac Lochlainn, Sinn Féin
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| QUESTIONS:
Do you support the 5050 Campaign for equal representation of women and men in Irish Politics?
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RESPONSES:
YES |
| Please Explain Why
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Equality is at the heart of everything Sinn Féin stands for and it impacts on the type of party we are, our philosophy of empowering communities, the new Republic that we want to create and the type of policies that we want to see implemented to get us there. Equal representation in political life is fundamental to these objectives.
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| Are you in favour of introducing gender quotas for the 2019 local elections?
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YES |
| Please Explain Why
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Sinn Féin has 264 councillors on the island. 159 in the south (47 female) 105 in the north (30 female) so 77 female Cllrs in total bringing us close to 30% local female representation across the island.
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| Would you support an’ A Rural Strategy’ to encourage more women to run for the local elections both as independents and party candidates?
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YES |
| Would you support more women to take up leadership positions within your party, such as chairs and national executive members?
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YES |
| What actions will you take within your party or as an Independent to encourage and support increased female participation in politics?
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The Ard Chomhairle (AC) is the party’s governing body and is elected by the membership annually at our Ard Fheis. More than 20 years ago we put into our Constitution a rule which states that there must be a least 40% women participation on the AC, and we increased this quote to 50/50 in 2002. Quotas have worked. It is many years since we had to co-opt on women members to reach the quota.
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| Would you support actions to make the Dáil more ‘family friendly’ by addressing the working hours, formalising maternity leave and considering other arrangements such as proxy voting and teleconferencing?
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YES |
| Please Explain Why | Sinn Féin political reform document, Towards a New Republic, commits us to introduce family friendly sittings in common with modern and best parliamentary practice in other jurisdictions. Sinn Féin Deputy Leader and TD for Dublin Central Mary Lou McDonald contributed to the NWCI’s launch of ‘A Parliament of all Talents: Building a Women-friendly Oireachtas’ and took part in the launch of the document.
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