Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Many excellent suggestions have been made which will inform the report and it has been a very valuable discussion. The first of my questions will be about the issue of commuting and rural local electoral areas, LEAs. What people forget is that it is not just about the meetings of the council. A considerable amount of the work of a councillor is meeting with people and there is considerable travel involved. I know there is considerable travel involved in my own constituency. In the run-up to an election one could be going to three public meetings a night just to try to reach everybody and to hear what people's concerns are. I am not sure how to address that.

When we are looking to get people to run, we have to be honest with people that is what the job entails and that it is not just about the monthly meeting. Whether that is online or not online is important but it is not the be all and end all. Do the witnesses have any suggestions around that? Although it has been helpful that much more of those public meetings are online.

What strikes me is the importance of the political parties in this of which we are all aware. Dr. Maher spoke about the competitive nature of politics which we cannot forget that. Parties want people to be re-elected in constituencies. This is why I brought up the issue of winnable seats with the Taoiseach yesterday and, again, did not get a response. We have not really got a mechanism to ensure that political parties put women in winnable seats, especially the larger parties, because they have many incumbents and they are battling it out against other large parties in those constituencies. They feel that an unknown person who may not have been elected previously might not stand the best chance. I am reading between the lines having spoken to an awful lot of politicians, who are men and feel that they have been put at a disadvantage. However, we have to start somewhere and quotas cannot deal with that. What else can we do to deal with it? The solution may be around culture.

Volunteers or what some parties will call political activists within their own parties do not fully understand the importance of asking women to run which I know Ms Farrell and Dr. Maher touched on. I see that more and more. Most people know that men do not need to be asked and women need to be asked. That is what all of the research shows.

Is there an opportunity for some of the witnesses' organisations to do training for group chairs across political parties in order that it is not just about candidates or campaign managers, but also about informing those who run selection conventions throughout the country at a grassroots level?

We have not really touched on social media but it is the number 1 problem women tell me about. Their biggest concern with entering politics is social media and that kind of exposure. One is never off. One is always on. I get quite disgusting private messages that nobody ever hears about. I think that women get more of that than men and that is what the research shows. We cannot leave the committee without having addressed that this fundamental point is putting women off running.