Ms Caitr?ona Gleeson:

I will take both Independents and ageism. Yes, in Women For Election, as a non-partisan organisation, we work across all political parties and none in terms of encouraging women in. Since I came in, we have seen nearly 2,500 participants over the past two years on our screens in Zoom meetings. A number of those women are looking to run independently. In that diversity we have seen, we are seeing women from all ends of the age spectrum. We are also doing a lot of work to look at encouraging more women from the later years of life to enter into politics for the first time. We have a gendered ageism. In local politics, we have a good cohort of men in retirement who are participating, but we do not have that same career path or retirement plan for women.

There are a number of particular issues to raise regarding Independents. If an Independent candidate wants to run, he or she has to use his or her home address. Within political parties, there is the option of using party headquarters if there is a concern for safety. That is something that could be picked up on. The Senator touched on the issue of the fund. I am interested in the EnAble fund in the UK as well. Independents need to have access to cash resources as much as other people running, but they do not have the support of political parties. It is important for democracy that we are not reliant solely on the party political system and that Independents are supported, particularly where parties do not match the values of people who want to be active. I would support that. We ran bespoke programmes this year. We had sessions specifically on running an Independent campaign where we looked at bringing in expertise on running as an Independent. That is built into our work and our mentioning programmes.