Forming the next Irish Government - policies and personalities

dont need dail time this week for that, just a phone

And there we have it from Calleary in response to criticism of the state and semi state response - 'lessons will be learnt'.
I.E. please ignore what we didn't do, we will invest in infrastructure etc etc. in other words.

I heard Valerie Cox on the radio the other day lamenting the low number of women in the cabinet. 3/15 is 20%, however there are only 25% women TDs in the Dáil, so that's only a difference of one minister to make the cabinet reflect the Dáil gender balance. 36% of the GE candidates were women, so the electorate obviously thought the male candidates were better overall, for whatever reason.

Editing to add that only the Soc Dems and SF have more than 26% women TD's. Labour only has 18% women.

I'm not in favour of quotas generally for the reasons you outline. Thankfully, many of the DEI initiatives which focus on equality of outcome rather than equality of opportunity are starting to fall out of favour in the US - hopefully that trend reaches these shores.

The Taoiseach has gone down the country to take his bashing https://x.com/johncookeradio/status/1884231471701037311

Gimmick politics again from the usual suspects.

The country is recovering from a storm and Sinn Fein are throwing hissy fits about who has a job.

The number of TDs should be capped at 200, then your system works.

would you like 30 ministers?

Nothing was dodged. You're trying to ignore the basic facts that gender quotas have been effective in bringing out signficant improvements, but we still have a long way to go.

The new legisation came in in 2012, to apply from 2016 onwards. In the 2016 election, women's representation in the Dáil increased from 15.1% to 22.2%. This further improved in the 2020 election, reaching 22.5% of TDs. In the current Dáil, there are 37 women TDs, representing 23.3% of the total 160 seats. This is the highest number of women TDs in the history of the Irish parliament.

And you want to take away these quotas for some reason, rather than continuing to work towards a gender balanced Dáil?

Positive action measures in employment have been around since the 1980s, with mixed successes. They aren't some imported 'woke DEI' initiative. They were around long before that and they'll be around long after that.

It is not discrimination to level the playing field and ensure equal access for all, regardless of gender, age, disability and more.

The 2011 to 2016 government survived with 15 junior ministers.

They didn't even attempt to increase it by one or two junior ministers this time around, they had to increase it by 3. And they think the public won't notice.

I haven't seen any good reasons for an increase in the number of ministers above current max of 15. It is more than enough. We already have a number of Departments whose names make them sound like are a product of political correctness and inclusivity. That carryon should be handled at Junior Minister level.

The issue for junior Ministers attending Cabinet needs to be dealt with once and for all.

Regarding the number TDs, this should be maxed somewhere between 100 and 140. I'd opt for 120 on the basis that if it's good enough for New Zealand, we could probable manage. 174 is ridiculous and serves no purpose.

He's trying to create a storm in that teacup the way he's swirling it..