Ms Caitr?ona Gleeson:

The concern I have around the resistance locally is that it is turkeys voting for Christmas. I ask new staff coming in or anybody who wants to really understand what the problem is in local government in Ireland to go the websites of all the county councils around Ireland and exclude the urban areas. We have the same faces going back 20 years and longer, people who have either inherited seats or are there with an expectation that these are their seats. I am not mincing my words when I say that. The resistance we meet when we go into counties, particularly the female deficit counties, is huge. There is a resistance to our work and there is a resistance to quotas. These are the people who are voting for the leaders of parties and who will continue to drive political parties. We see great engagement. I particularly welcome that incentive scheme from the Government for funding diversity officers and funding roles within the parties. We are seeing that make a difference at a national party level. I do not know yet how that is going to play out when women are selected to run in 2024 for seats where there are incumbents. Will they be supported within their local party areas by the incumbents or those expecting to take up those incumbent roles?

We are not overly mad about relying on the incentives. The previous incentive scheme was referred to informally as the headage scheme as it was per head. The money that is going in is quite small. It is coming out of the same fund that is funding the initiatives Women for Election, She and other NGOs are running, as well as local councils. There is a very small pot there. The incentives need to have teeth if the parties are actually going to want them. That is where we are recommending a penalty mechanism. We see the incentives as a sort of igniter piece.

The penalties need to be embedded in our system so we do not fall back. This is where matters stand with quotas.