Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator. I thank everyone again for the clear outlines and proposals they have put forward. I have a long-standing interest in this area. I also read the 2009 report that we produced in the then Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women’s Rights, and to which Dr. Buckley referred, in which Ireland is described as an "unfinished democracy". At that point, 16% of Teachta Dalaí were women. It was an appallingly low percentage and much lower than what it is currently. Of course, one of the recommendations in our report was the introduction of a gender quota, which later transpired in 2012.

Helped by the work of Dr. Buckley, Professor Yvonne Galligan and others, we also came up with the four Cs phrase the Taoiseach used yesterday, which outlines the fact that based on the evidence, women face obstacles in progression in politics due to a lack of cash, lack of childcare, the old boys' culture and a lack of confidence. We then identified the fifth C of candidate selection procedure, which quotas were designed to target and address. It is really useful to hear the point that quotas did have a positive effect, despite starting from such a low base and with progress apparently having stalled in 2020 with no further increase. The number of women Deputies increased from 16% to 23% but it is still far too low. I thank all the witnesses for outlining that and making the link with local politics which, as they said, is not just a pipeline but also a very important form of democratic representation in itself where, again, women are represented in far too small numbers.

I will ask a few specific questions about how we change this. The witnesses put forward great proposals in different ways. We also discussed this yesterday with the Taoiseach when he appeared before the committee. He expressed some reservation about quotas in the context of local elections.