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There was a terrific buzz in the City Hall on Friday 2nd May. Minister Kathleen Lynch (Lab) talked of the need for women to have courage when it came to making the changes necessary to increase the number of women elected to Local Councils and eventually to the Dail. She warned that international experience showed that progress would be slow at first. Fidelma Collins (FG) gave a very insightful account of campaigning and the use of tallies from previous elections to maintain and increase support. She argued that preparation was key and that this needed to start six months out from the election date. John Russell (MOVE) spoke of the vision of women and men cooperating as equals to achieve progress in society. Sandra McLellan (SF) spoke of her progression from union organiser to elected member of the Dail.

We all left with renewed enthusiasm for the 50:50 project of men and women as equals in the political world.

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The 5050 Group was formed to campaign for gender parity in Irish politics by the year 2020.  Quite simply, we want 50-50 by 2020. In order to support women candidates running in the Local and European elections in Cork/Ireland South the 5050 Group are organising a

Breakfast meeting in the City Hall in Cork on Friday 2^nd May at 9am.

In 2012 the Government legislated for candidate selection gender quotas in general elections. This was in recognition of the underrepresentation of women in electoral politics and the failure of all political parties to adequately deal with the underrepresentation of women candidates on the ballot paper. Women are half the population of Ireland but six out of seven of Irish politicians are men. To date (9/4/2014) the number of women candidates declared to contest the Local Elections 2014 are as follows. (Adrian Kavanagh Blog, NUIM, 2014)

• 107 female Fine Gael candidates – 22.9% of the total number
• 69 female Fianna Fail candidates – 16.7% of the total number
• 54 female Labour Party candidates – 29.2% of the total number
• 59 female Sinn Fein candidates – 31.2% of the total number
• 11 female Green Party candidates – 30.6% of the total number
• 15 female Anti Austerity Alliance candidates – 34.1% of the total number
• 18 female People Before Profit candidates – 40.0% of the total number
• 2 female Workers and Unemployed Action Group candidates – 66.7% of the total number
• 1 female Eirigi candidate – 16.7% of the total number
• 1 female United Left candidate – 16.7% of the total number
• 1 female Workers Party candidate – 10.0% of the total number
• 2 female Direct Democracy Ireland candidates – 28.6% of the total number
• 62 female non-party/independent candidates – 17.9% of the total number. Within this grouping there are 3 The Independents Network candidates (12.0% of the total) and 5 female People’s Convention candidates/People’s Candidates (23.8% of the total number).

In the 2009 local elections  Blarney, Macroom, Skibbereen, Cork City North East and Cork City North West did not have any women candidates. Thankfully in 2014 all these areas have fielded women candidates. However some parties will still struggle at the next general election to comply with the 30 percent quota.