Sean O’Rourke had five female election candidates in his studio last night in The Week in Politics representing five different parties. The topic was how to increase the representation of women in the Dáil and there was a general consensus amongst the women that gender parity would benefit the country as a whole. They were all clever and dedicated politicians discussing important issues such as childcare and family friendly hours in the Dáil. But for me the highlight was their unanimous rejection of attending funerals as part of a TDs job – I couldn’t imagine that five male TDs would have had the honesty of speaking so frankly about such an outdated tradition on live television! I really got the sense of what future debates in the Dáil could be like if we had women such as these taking more seats!
A breath of fresh air
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