30% of political candidates must be female....

5live wrote: »

Come on now Shane. That is a slur on the people of south Kerry. Why pick on them. Why not mention the people of Tipperary who elected Michael Lowry or the constituents of the late Tony Gregory? Did they not have similar deals with parties in government who were idealogically opposite their original political beliefs? At least the Healy-Reas are from the FF genepool so it that not just good negotiating skills whereas the other 2 were prepared to swallow any political principles they had to feather nest their constituents?

Why is it only the Healy-Reas tarred with that brush when every constituency has had or would like to have a politican with the same nous if the country was in the same situation?

Bloody hell folks lets call a spade a spade for pitys sake

Quotas divisive and discriminatory

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

MINISTER for the Environment Phil Hogan has claimed that women and men that oppose gender quotas are part of "a conservative culture".


As a woman that opposes gender quotas, I think it is unfair of the minister to pigeon hole those that disagree with him on this issue.

He should respect the fact that those women and men that oppose gender quotas do want to see more women running for election.

The reason I oppose gender quotas is because I am opposed to the idea that the way to bring about more women candidates should be a law that discriminates against candidates on the grounds of their gender.

Such a law will be bad for the cause of women and men. It will be divisive, discriminatory and undemocratic.

It is true that I do want to conserve something, ie the principle that anyone can contest an election irrespective of their gender and that voters can make up their own minds who to vote for irrespective of gender.

In contrast, the minister intends to bring in a law whereby a citizen could be prevented from running in a general election solely on the grounds of their gender.

The minister’s method of using state funding of political parties to achieve his objective in relation to gender quotas is likely to be challenged as unconstitutional because his proposed law will be in conflict with article 16 of the Irish Constitution, which prohibits the passing of a law which places a disability on a citizen running for the Dáil on the grounds of their sex.

It would be far better for those at the top of political parties, including Minister Hogan, to try to achieve an increase in women running for election by measures that increase the participation by women at the grass roots of political parties.

Ironically, gender quotas will undermine the grass roots of political parties by imposing top down decisions by party leaderships as to who and what gender general election candidates should be.

Joanna Tuffy
TD (Labour)
Dáil Éireann
Dublin 2



Read more: http://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/letters/quotas-divisive-and-discriminatory-158515.html

Gender quotas a positive step


Monday, July 04, 2011

IT HAS been interesting to follow this week’s discussion on gender quotas in the letters column and to see the charge made that they are undemocratic or discriminatory.

In fact these quotas have been introduced in almost half of all countries precisely because it is recognised that a democracy cannot be considered complete without the full participation of women, as well as men, in political life. Indeed countries such as France, Spain and the Netherlands have also embraced gender quotas in the corporate boardroom. As long ago as 1997, the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s (IPU) Universal Declaration on Democracy explicitly related democracy to "a genuine partnership between men and women".

Our government — as well as those who fear that quotas could be discriminatory — could learn from the IPU’s use of gender neutral quotas. This would mean that, instead of requiring that 30% or 40% of the general election candidates selected by political parties should be women, our legislation would require that a minimum of 30% or 40% of either sex be put forward. The current proposal suggests 30% should be women when the quota is first applied, and 40% thereafter.

Gender-neutral quotas are not only non-discriminatory, they also ensure that the lower required percentage does not become a barrier to the increased participation of either sex. Of course, candidate selection quotas alone are unlikely to bring real change in the levels of representation of women in the first few elections in which they are applied. This is one reason why they should be applied in local as well as general elections. In part, this is because an incumbent has an advantage over a newcomer. Their positive effects should, however, include forcing parties to examine the culture within which they operate and making them take seriously the issues that inhibit women’s full participation.

Sir, – Anthea McTeirnan’s describes politics as the sharing out of a bag of sweets (Opinion, March 9th). The reverse sexism in the language she used in her article, where she referred to women as women and men as boys, has already been questioned by Dr Peter Culhane (Letters, March 14th). I would add that the picture she paints of politics as being about who gets what share of the spoils of office is not a very encouraging one if her objective is to achieve greater participation by women in politics.

Politics is much more than that and in fact most women and men involved in politics never seek political office, but rather they knock on doors, put up posters, and they take part in debates because they are passionate about politics. Politics is about women and men working in solidarity to make the world a better place.

Elections are not about seats being given to men or women but rather about human beings voting for other human beings and one person having to persuade another to vote for them based on their ideas, their record, their character.

Gender quotas are an anathema to this democratic process. The real issue is that not enough women are choosing to get involved in politics and the question is how to encourage them more.

Most importantly, politics is about ideas, and the choice between ideas about how to make people’s lives better; and it is this much more interesting picture of politics that needs to be promoted by those that wish to encourage more women to get involved. – Yours, etc,

JOANNA TUFFY TD,
Dáil Éireann, Dublin 2.

I wish to put on record my opposition to the gender quota proposals in this legislation. My first reason for opposing the provisions is that they are very likely to be unconstitutional. They appear to be against many provisions in the Constitution. Second, I believe they are undemocratic and, third, I believe they are discriminatory.

MARY MINIHAN

The Irish Times - Friday, July 20, 2012

GENDER QUOTAS are set to become law after the Electoral Amendment (Political Funding) Bill 2011 passed all stages in the Dáil yesterday.

The legislation, which has yet to be signed by the President, will halve State funding to parties unless 30 per cent of their candidates at the next general election are women. This figure will rise to 40 per cent at subsequent general elections.