Ciaran Lynch TD : Labour bill major move towards gender equality in politics

Issued : Tuesday 3 March, 2009

Ciaran Lynch TD introduces Labour's Electoral (Gender Parity) Bill 2009 to mark the International Women's Day.

STATEMENT BY CIARAN LYNCH TD

Labour Party Spokesperson on Housing and Local Govt
Tuesday, 03 March 2009

LABOUR BILL, MAJOR MOVE TOWARDS GENDER EQUALITY IN POLITICS

Of the 166 members of Dail Eireann, just 22 or 13 per cent are women. This places us in well below international norms. While the EU average of women in national parliaments is 23 per cent, many of our nearest neighbours perform considerably better that this.

Twenty one per cent of MPs in Portugal are women, while in both Belgium and Spain, 36 per cent are women. In Sweden 47 per cent of members of the national parliament are women, so it clear that we have some serious catching up to do.

We could do one of two things. We could either leave the situation as is and hope for the best, or we could become pro-active and make legislative provision to address the imbalance.

As a country, our obligations in this regard could not be clearer. According to Amsterdam Treaty, 'equality between men and women is one of the tasks to be promoted by the European Community'.

In 1996, the EU Council issued a recommendation to adopt a 'comprehensive, integrated strategy designed to promote balanced participation of women and men in the decision-making process'.

The European Parliament's Resolution of 11 February 1994 on women in decision-making called on the European Union Member States to take specific action in the field and was followed by a Council Resolution of 27 March 1995 on the balanced participation of women and men in decision-making.

At UN level, the Convention of Elimination of All Discrimination Against Women indicates that "Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the political and public life of the country."

Labour believes that time for hoping for the best is long gone. In our 2007 election manifesto, we outlined our commitment to initiate radical change in this regard, and this was reinforced last November when our Party Conference in Kilkenny called for measures to promote women in politics.

Our Bill will incentivise the selection by political parties, of women candidates and will incentivise parties promoting their female candidates.

This will happen by making a provision such that payments to political parties will be reduced, if the parties fail to ensure, a movement towards gender parity in candidates selected to contest Dáil elections.

Under the Bill, payment that a party currently receives would be halved unless either at least one-fifth of their candidates were women, or at least one-fifth of their TDs were women.

It is clear that women are being marginalised and excluded by our political and electoral system.

Many of our neighbours, including France, Spain and Belgium have quotas of some description in place, and we in Labour believe that it is time for Ireland to follow suit.

ENDS

Contact Ciaran Lynch - 086-603-3923

www.labour.ie/press