At a fascinating debate in Dail Eireann on Friday 21 January, called “The Dail of Tomorrow”, Mairead McGuinness MEP called for the introduction of gender quotas as a way to “kick-start Ireland into the 21st century of political representation”
Ms McGuinness was speaking as part of a panel discussion on female political representation that also included Senator Ivana Bacik, Margaret Conlon TD, and chaired by former TD Katharine Bulbulia. Ireland currently ranks joint 85th (with Cameroon) of 134 countries in the World calssification list compiled by the InterParliamentary Union.
All of the speakers agreed that without direct and immediate intervention that Ireland will continue to languish at the bottom of international league tables of women in politics.
‘Let us risk legislation on gender balance, said Ms McGuinness. “Let us set specific targets over a decent timeframe to let the political system adjust. And at that point the legislation should no longer be needed, as has happened in Denmark.’
There is a growing momentum behind support for the introduction of gender quotas as a way of including women equally with men on party candidate tickets. this should be a demand made of all parties during this election.
This is very true. It would be great if we could achieve real equality.
We need more voices such as these among female politicians in Ireland in order to bring about change.