Professor Yvonne Galligan:

The Senator's discussion on the complexities of the Seanad electoral system is very helpful. I had not gone into detail on that in my submission. I appreciate his additional comments, especially the potential to require nominating bodies to present gender-balanced candidate slates wherever they can. Obviously if they only nominate one, another provision could kick in. However, we are talking about ones that can nominate two or more. That is a very significant number of them. That is very much in line with the existing legislation that applies to political parties. If we also introduce legislation on gender balance on State boards, there is no reason that nominating bodies could not also be part of this framework, with the expectation that there would be gender balance at all decision-making levels and at the points at which decisions on who the decision-makers are can be made. What the Senator said about the complexity of the Seanad electoral system is very helpful.

Regarding carrots and sticks, it is often worthwhile exploring the carrot approach. It is very easy to reach for the stick approach. Properly constructed incentives can go a long way to achieving the outcomes that are for the good of society more generally.