Dr. Michelle Maher:

Yes. Before I do, I want to correct something I said earlier. There is confirmation that the local electoral area boundaries will not change for the 2024 local elections.

I am very happy to be able to clarify that.

Senator Warfield touched on gender quotas. When we talk about introducing them in local elections, the question that invariably comes up is about the mechanism by which the quotas are brought in. It was very clearcut for the general elections because it was tied to political party funding but because that does not exist for local elections, how the parties do local elections does not affect their funding.

The establishment of an electoral commission is in the programme for Government and there is a research capacity in the terms of reference for that electoral commission. The Senator has heard the other witness speak about organisations such as ourselves not having that legal expertise. However, a research capacity within the electoral commission would cede the place to answer the Senator's question.

We were talking about resistance to quotas. We have done a lot of work with the women's networks within the political parties. I do not get a sense that there is a resistance to quota for local elections in rural Ireland. The political parties will talk about supply and demand. Women who are in SHESchool express a concern that the motivation for the valuable work they are doing in the communities - we all know that if one wants to find women acting politically with a small "p" where one finds it is the trojan work they are doing in communities - will be questioned if they declare themselves as candidates. Thus, they are getting the groundwork in place and waiting for the selection conventions to understand the lie of the land better. I do not feel in rural Ireland that there is as strong a resistance as perhaps we might think.