Professor Yvonne Galligan:

I thank the Senator for her comment and explanation of how her party approaches the issue. Seeing a more gender-balanced Dáil and representative body as a whole comes down to the will of party leaders, and I make this a plural in every sense. One could say that perhaps for open seats, such as where a party is contesting a seat where the incumbent has retired, preference should be given to women candidates in these circumstances. Over a cycle of two or three elections this could change the face of the representative body.

A measure I would like to tease out a little further is putting measures in place that would determine an outcome and state our Parliament must be 50:50 male and female. Of course we want this to happen but we would need to think through and consider very carefully putting in place a measure that states it has to be 50:50.

There might be more room to do it in the Seanad because of the different lists and because of the opportunity to give preference to female candidates over male candidates on a panel if that panel is not coming out equally representative. It needs more teasing out rather than rushing into it. If the route of encouragement and exhortation is not working, then we have to look at what else can be brought into play.