Sharon Keogan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome everyone here today and I always love to come in to listen to representatives of local government and councillors throughout the country. With regard to a comment made about Independents and how they do not bring on women in politics, this year I was allocated funding to support independent women and minority groups in politics. I held a number of training sessions throughout the country with women and a number of them were from minority backgrounds. I was involved in mentoring about 60 candidates throughout the country and 13 of them got elected. There is a lot of work going on behind the scenes that people might not be aware of with regards to independent politics.

I am a firm believer in meritocracy; I really am. I have a team of women myself. We have three female Independent councillors on my team but it takes hard work for a woman to get elected. A lot of women do not realise the amount of work that it actually takes. They go into this naïvely at the very beginning thinking they will put their name on a ticket and because they are women, they will get elected. It is hard work being a public representative and people have to wake up to that fact. Just because you are a woman does not necessarily mean you are going to get that number one vote. It takes work and if you are not prepared to do it, whether you be male or female, the public is not going to get behind you and that is the reality of it.

A lot of work needs to be done. Yes, more women need to be promoted but more minority groups need to be promoted as well. I thank the Green Party, as there was a young man running down in Cork who I wish to mention today. I watched Honore Kamegni's campaign and I was egging him on from the get go. The hatred and the comments he received online were absolutely appalling. I commend him on his campaign, as he was a very positive light in a sea of darkness out there for minority candidates and I thank him today for being a beacon of hope for other candidates from minority groups around the country.