Ms Catherine Lane:

We want to see our Parliament, local authorities and all those decision-making spaces being reflective of who lives in and makes up our local communities and society. The introduction of gender quotas for general elections was a blunt instrument which was required to address that persistent imbalance in our democracy. Regarding our campaigning for the extension of gender quotas to local elections, what we are concerned with is that the two big parties, namely, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, failed to run the minimum of 30% in the previous local elections. Therefore, and in the context of the size of political parties, they are the main gatekeepers in respect of women getting on ballot papers.

We are interested in giving voters more choice. We are also very aware of the positive impact that seeing women on posters, and especially women from minority backgrounds, has on young people and, indeed, all people living in the local community. The issue here concerns getting more women elected, but even getting more women to run, to be part of campaigns and to take part in canvassing locally has a positive impact. Turning to the scheme the Department has introduced to incentivise political parties to support more women and people from diverse backgrounds to run as candidates, we have seen those sorts of soft measures taking too long to achieve the change we must see in our representative democracy. While those kinds of measures are to be welcomed, we do not believe they are going to bring about the required change.

Women also face particular obstacles in running as independent candidates in local elections. Without the backing of a party, there can be financial barriers to running and that can be very challenging in respect of canvassing and having to rely much more on the support of family and friends in that regard. The research we did in 2019, entitled "Women Beyond the Dáil: More Women in Local Government", clearly identified the barriers faced by women in rural communities in getting on the ticket, and that is where we believe the quotas can really make a difference. The question arises of where political parties go to seek their candidates. It has traditionally been in spaces where men continue to dominate, such as in chambers of commerce, farming organisations and sporting organisations. Therefore, quotas would bring pressure to bear on bigger political parties to look outside the traditional pools of candidate selection.