Professor Eilionóir Flynn:

Quotas are something we considered in this research. We did not have the scope to fully develop a recommendation on it in this work because we felt that much more conversation needs to be had with the disability community in Ireland about this. People expressed quite different views about quotas to us in the course of doing the research. As we hear about quotas all the time, will people feel they are only there because of the quota and not there because they deserve it? Will it really improve access or will it just be the same people again who take advantage of the quota and are able to use that to advance? I refer to white, physically disabled, straight men, for example. Our research was more focused on the more marginalised and intersecting identities of disabled people. Some participants in this research, particularly disabled women and queer people, were not sure if quotas would help them specifically. Even the quota we do have, as we know, does not extend beyond the Dáil franchise. Our research looked specifically at local government elections and at the European elections and it was not a factor there. A number of feminist organisations have called for the gender quota to be expanded beyond the Dáil, and it will be interesting to see more research on how that impacts. In particular, the way in which it is framed is quite useful because it is not a quota for the final seats and it does not impact on people's choices of who they want to vote for, but it does ensure a greater diversity of candidates on the ballot and that is, of course, what we wish to see from a disability perspective.