LW welcome Oireachtas report on Women's political participation

Issued : Thursday 5 November, 2009



LW and Kathleen Lynch TD jointly welcome the Oireachtas Sub-Committee on Women's Participation in Politics Report.





JOINT STATEMENT



Labour Women, Labour Party's women's section
Kathleen Lynch TD
Thursday, 05 November 2009



WELCOME FOR OIREACHTAS COMMITTEE REPORT ON WOMEN'S PARTICIPATION IN POLITICS



The recommendations made by the Joint Justice Sub-Committee on Women's Participation in Politics are to be welcomed.

Ireland currently ranks number 87 in the world in terms of women's representation in the National Parliaments, on a par with Sierra Leone. The global average for women Parliamentarians is 16 per cent, Ireland is performing below this at 13 per cent. Clearly, something has to be done.

Today the Committee recommends that legislation should be introduced for all political parties to put forward "at least 33.3% women candidates ...based on the original Belgian model, that no party could have more than two-thirds of their candidates of one gender" in the next general election. The Committee further recommends financial sanctions for those parties who fail to keep to this obligation.

The recommendation is much like the Labour Party Electoral (Gender Parity) Bill 2009 introduced in March of this year. The Labour Party Bill would oblige all political parties to put forward a certain percentage of women candidates starting at 20 per cent, increasing to 30 per cent after 7 years and to 40 per cent after a further 7 years. Again financial sanctions would apply.

Labour Women argue that a democratic deficit exists due to the limited representation of women in national politics. Democracy is not working fully with only 13 per cent representing 50 per cent of the population.

The political parties have an imperative to improve the representation of women in politics. Legislation is clearly one of the ways to address this issue.

Currently the Labour Party has a relatively acceptable gender balance of 35 per cent women TDs compared to 9 per cent for FG and 8 per cent for FF. It is the view of Labour Women that all political parties have to improve their efforts to ensure more women candidates are presented to the electorate.