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

We can look back at the transcript but I think his point was that there are many more barriers that quotas alone cannot address. I think we all agree with that. Some of the barriers we ended up discussing at length were low pay and, as the witnesses outlined, the difficulty of juggling a full-time job in the case of many councillors, the supposedly part-time role of a councillor and family or caring responsibilities, which fall disproportionately on women. These are impeding women from entering local politics but also from staying in local politics. That has been an interesting exchange.

How do we change this? See Her Elected, in focusing on the rural divide, put those figures very clearly. Outside of Dublin, the figures are very low and in some counties, they are extremely low. How should that be tackled? Quotas are one method and the Citizens' Assembly recommended that we extend quotas to local elections. There is a difficulty with the sanction. At national level, we were able to impose the very severe sanction of loss of half of political funding for parties that do not meet the general election quota because, as we know, political funding is tied to general election performance. Dr. Buckley pointed out the incentivised approach taken at local level whereby parties gain more funds if they meet the quota for local elections.

That is a really sensible proposal and there already are soft measures in this regard. Will the witnesses expand on that and how we can address the scarcity of women candidates at local level? When we looked at this issue in 2009, the evidence showed that when women stand for election, they have as much chance as men of being elected. The barrier is not at the electorate level; the barrier is getting onto the ticket and the support needed in bringing women onto the ticket. I ask the witnesses to comment on that and the specific measures for both local and general elections. How would a quota work for local government and what are the other key measures that need to be taken to address the issue?

At local election level, there is not the same commute issue, which is a huge concern in Dáil elections for those with caring responsibilities. It is not as big an issue at local elections. At one seminar we held here, a view was expressed that local elections should be great for people with caring responsibilities because local government hours can facilitate, or could be made to facilitate, those responsibilities because the role is supposed to be part-time. I ask the witnesses to comment on that.

What timelines do the witnesses see as necessary to achieve the action plan to get to 50:50 representation by 2030? The citizens' assembly has given us some timelines. We have already missed the timeline given in recommendation of No. 20 of expanding the gender quota by the end of 2022. Are there any other key timelines that should be identified?

On the referendum issue, we in this committee have said it should be held in 2023. Are there any comments on that? The Taoiseach told us yesterday the Government is committed to holding a referendum and doing so as soon as possible. The Tánaiste told us last week a year's lead-in would be needed to run a successful referendum from the date of the decision being made by the Cabinet.

I have covered a lot of issues. The key question is how we bring forward more women. What are the key measures needed to address the still shockingly low levels of women's representation, particularly at local level? I will go in reverse order this time and ask Dr. Buckley to respond first.