Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not agree that legislation is the way to deal with gender imbalances and, as such, I am very supportive of the points made by the Chairman in this regard. Positive discrimination can be taken too far in some circumstances including, as I noted in another context, in respect of the Irish language. Legislation is certainly not the vehicle for such provisions and there are many other avenues open to people.

I disagree with Deputy O'Brien. I was a member of Cork County Council. Due to the electoral system, a minority of members were women, but there was no active discrimination against their participation on external boards and vocational education committees, VECs. There is a culture of encouraging gender balance. This was certainly the case with Cork County Council when we appointed members to the County Cork VEC. Indeed, I would go further than calling it a culture, in that there was a responsibility on councillors to ensure positive discrimination.