Gender quotas must be brought in for local elections as the top two political parties fail to ensure that at least 30% of their candidates are female, the National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI) insists.
Under a recent Government initiative, parties who reach the target of 30% female local election candidates qualify for extra funding of €250 per female candidate.
Political parties failing to achieve this benchmark will receive €100 in extra funding per female candidate.
And while women account for 28.3% of the 1,979 local election candidates this year, just 21.2% of Fianna Fail’s candidates are women.
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And just 29% of Fine Gael’s candidates for the local election of 24 May are women.
Under the gender quota system for general elections, parties who fail to ensure 30% of their candidates are female lost their State funding.
This gender quota system must also be brought in for local elections, said NWCI director Orla O’Connor.
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“It’s pretty poor that the two main parties couldn’t reach 30%,” Ms O’Connor said.
“The local elections are the electoral pipeline because it’s where the parties draw their pool of candidates from for the general elections.
“The Government introduced a soft measure. It’s not effective,” she said.
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