Ms Tara Farrell:

I thank the committee for the invitation to speak to it today. I am CEO of Longford Women’s Link. Longford Women’s Link is a social enterprise founded in 1995 and we provide services to more than 1,000 women and children annually as part of our unique model of integrated service delivery. We engage in widespread regional and national advocacy and I am the current chair of Irish Rural Link.

We have been active in the area of women in local democracy for more than a decade, commencing with our women’s manifesto programme in 2009 which was supported by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. We have been working with a variety of organisations to support increased participation of women in rural communities over the last number of years. With 50:50 North West we have long been collaborators on the issue of supporting women into public life. Following a joint conference in 2015 both organisations committed to finding workable solutions to tackle this issue. The See Her Elected, SHE, programme was officially launched in 2019 and supported by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. We believe the participation of women in rural constituencies in political and public life is essential in building inclusive and resilient communities.