Ms Caitr?ona Gleeson:

Women for Election is working to solve the high levels of gender inequality in Irish politics. Since our foundation in 2012 as a national and non-partisan organisation, we have been providing direct supports, training and interventions to inspire, equip and support a diversity of women from communities across Ireland to enter and succeed in politics. We strongly advocate for systemic changes to make politics more accessible, inclusive and safer for women, along with driving dynamic collaborations to help achieve our vision of full and equal representation of a diversity of women in Irish politics. We are driven by an ambition to help Ireland realise 50:50 representation by 2030. To this end, we want to see 1,000 women supported to run for local election in 2024 and 250 women running in the next general election.

Equality for women in Ireland is a critical driver of social and economic development. The achievement of full and equal representation of a diversity of women in public life is key to achieving and realising gender equality in Ireland. Not only do the continued low levels of women in public life result in a weaker democracy, but the absence of women from the centres of power and decision-making in public life can reinforce harmful norms and behaviours in wider society, which can manifest in some of the worst forms of discrimination and abuse of women.

As we will hear in more detail from Dr. Buckley shortly, the data paint a stark picture. Ireland is ranked 100th in the world for the percentage of women in Parliament, with men occupying 77% of Dáil seats and 74% of local council seats. In 2022, only four women represent the whole province of Munster in the Dáil. There are 11 constituencies and 23 local electoral areas with no women elected to represent them. A Traveller woman has never been elected locally or nationally. We are still waiting for our first female Taoiseach and the first female Minister for Finance, to name a few positions. Despite our pioneering start for gender equality in politics when Countess Markievicz was elected as Europe's first female minister, we have floundered and lagged when it comes to equal and fair representation since that first Dáil. Considering we have had 100 years of women in political life in Ireland, it is fair to say that our political institutions and systems have deliberately worked against women becoming active citizens in our own country. The absence of a critical mass of women from the Dáil and the majority of local councils hurts everyone. The lack of diversity in decision-making is severely limiting the potential for effective governance and a healthy democracy. This status quois also damaging Ireland’s international reputation as a progressive country.

If we are serious about tackling gender inequality in Ireland, we have to radically address a key driver, that is, the distribution of power in politics. Put clearly, radical and practical solutions to accelerate to 50:50 representation are imminently needed. A priority focus must be the extension of 40% gender quotas, with nested ethnic quotas to take effect for the 2024 local elections. The solutions need to include non-compliance penalties and an initial package of financial incentives for political parties that meet the 40% minimum target.

We welcome and encourage the fully resourced implementation of proposed legislation on hate crime, online abuse and other measures aimed at increasing security and tackling the high prevalence of targeted abuse, particularly towards women in public life.

Explicit maternity and paternity leave provisions in the Oireachtas and local government are already 100 years past their due date. We welcome the recent introduction by the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, of the general scheme of a Bill to introduce maternity protection and other measures for local authority elected members. However, we encourage a greater urgency to pass and implement this Bill as there are sitting councillors who are currently negatively impacted by the absence of maternity leave provision.

We understand the constitutional changes needed to allow for a modern Oireachtas. We strongly advocate that such a referendum is packaged with other proposed referendums that this committee is considering. We welcome in particular Deputy MacNeill's Bill on the thirty-ninth amendment of the Constitution to facilitate remote parliamentary voting. We believe it is critical that the Oireachtas is modernised and enables modern and hybrid vote-working for Deputies and Senators, in particular to attract women from rural areas and politicians who have caring responsibilities.

We also welcome the Ceann Comhairle's commitment to the full implementation of the Oireachtas forum on a family-friendly and inclusive Parliament. We recently worked with the National Women's Council of Ireland to advise the development of a family-friendly toolkit for local government and we strongly urge local councils to apply this resource and further develop a suite of measures to make local politics more inclusive and family-friendly.

We welcome the assembly's recognition of the positive impact of the programmes Women for Election has been delivering for the last decade. However, to truly maximise our impact and the impact of other groups we need to see both a significant scaling up of resources and the introduction of a coherent national government strategy, with clear targets, actions and resources to ensure that Ireland rapidly accelerates to 50:50 by 2030.

The prevalence of last minute ticket additions or unsupported female candidates needs a more radical approach. Fundamentally, political parties need to select and support women and men equally in the next elections. While very necessary, quotas should be the minimum target and 50:50 should be the established standard. This requires a radical shift. There is no shortage of practical and systemic solutions, including those I have outlined above. What is needed now is the political will from across the leadership of all political parties to implement them.

We strongly advocate for the full and imminent implementation of the assembly's recommendations Nos. 20, 23 and 24 and we commend the assembly members and this committee on the careful consideration of these solutions. If we are serious about tackling one of the main roots of gender inequality in Ireland, the need and time for a comprehensive, radical solution towards 50:50 is now.