Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests. I want to pick up on gender equality and representation at political level. It is much easier to achieve gender balance in the Seanad than people let on. The Taoiseach has been commended on nominating nine women out of 11. Gender equality is entirely linked to Seanad reform. The Seanad reform implementation group has discussed at length how we would achieve gender balance in the Seanad. While we are constrained by the Constitution, the Taoiseach should use the 11 nominees to address any lack of diversity that exists, including gender. It would be possible to introduce legislation stating that the Taoiseach would have regard to having diversity and gender balance.

Of the 43 Members elected from the vocational panels, some are nominated by nominating bodies, many of which have up to 11 nominations. Nominating bodies that can make more than one nomination should be required to achieve a gender balance of at least 40% or 50% to ensure we have a gender balance of candidates in future. On the Agricultural Panel, I think there are nominating bodies that have 11 nominees. Many nominating bodies, including on my own panel, have one nomination. We have proposed a Seanad electoral amendment that where a nominating body has just one nomination, it would be given a second nomination if that achieved a gender balance.

The whole structure and complexity of the Seanad electoral system - the inside and outside subpanels - could be used for gender balance. God, it is so complex. Oireachtas Members nominate and a limited number of those would be elected. A limited number of those from the nominating bodies would be elected. Those inside and outside subpanels could be used for male and female. Therefore, the whole structure of the place could be based on achieving gender balance. That is probably more radical, but the complexities of the Seanad could enable much greater gender balance in representation.

We discussed quotas at a local level when officials from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage appeared before the committee. They said that political funding is tied to Dáil seats and it all revolves around the Dáil election. Therefore, there is no solution yet other than basically imposing penalties on parties. I welcome Professor Galligan's contribution on incentives to reach balance. If those incentives are good enough, we can surely achieve the required change at local level.