Author Archives: Edel

5050 Group launches in Meath

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By Claire McGing

Last Saturday (November 3rd), the Meath 50-50 Group was launched at the Women Leading the Way Conference in Kells. The conference was organised by Cllr. Sarah Reilly who is Cathaoirleach of Kells Town Council (one of only three women ever elected to this position). Speakers included leading women in politics, business and non-governmental organisations in Ireland. Minister of State for Kathleen Lynch TD and Mairead McGuinness MEP both gave keynote addresses.

The aim of the Meath 50-50 Group is to encourage the greater representation of women in decision-making in Ireland. The launch was a huge success and generated a lot of interest, discussion and ideas. The group already has nearly 40 members.

The group’s first official meeting will be held at 8pm on Monday, November 26th at the Newgrange Hotel in Navan. A committee will be elected and future events will be planned. All interested are very welcome to attend. We are hoping to host a public meeting on gender and politics in County Meath early next year, and are currently planning a campaign to get more women’s voices in the Irish political media.

For more information about the Meath 50-50 Group, or to become a member, please e-mail meath5050group@gmail.com. We are a non-partisan organisation.

An Historic Day

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The 5050 Group welcomes the passing of gender quota legislation
 
On July 19, legislation on political party funding and candidate gender quotas was passed in the Dáil. The Electoral (Amendment) (Political Funding) Act, 2012 provides for a 30% gender quota for party candidates at the next election, rising to 40% seven years later. Non-compliant parties will risk financial penalties.
 
 
Edel Clancy, Chair of the 5050 Group, welcoming the Act said: ‘We commend Minister Phil Hogan for including an electoral gender quota provision in the Electoral (Amendment) (Political Funding) Bill 2011.  This development is extremely positive.  International research continually shows that candidate gender quotas are a successful contributor to increasing women’s political representation worldwide.  We warmly welcome the gender quota proposal as we believe it will contribute significantly to redressing the gender imbalance in Irish politics’.  
 
 
However, the 5050 Group has called for an extension of gender quotas to local elections. ‘Local government is where politicians ‘cut their cloth’ and gain the experience and profile that aids their candidature for Dáil election.  Currently, women account for only 17 per cent of all county councillors.  A key problem is that with so few numbers of women in local government, political parties oftentimes do not have ‘experienced’ women politicians to select for Dáil elections.  It is vital that a gender quota is extended to local government to ensure a constant supply of women politicians available to contest at national elections.  In the absence of legislation, we call on all political parties to publicly commit to running at least 30% women candidates at the 2014 local elections.’
 
 
The 30% quota provision is very attainable. UCC academic and member of the 5050 Group Fiona Buckley has calculated that at the 2011 election just one more female party candidate in 38 of the 43 constituencies would have delivered the 30% quota.