Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)

I would like to share my time with Deputy Durkan. I note he is not in the House but if he arrives, I would like to share my time with him.

I am not circulating a speech because I am speaking very much as a woman Member of this House particularly on the gender elements of this legislation. I want to put on record that today of all days there are huge lessons to be learned in terms of the relationship between politics and big business. The Mahon tribunal has a large number of recommendations and huge evidence of corruption in this State in the manipulation of the planning process. As Minister of State with responsibility for planning I will very carefully examine its recommendations in terms of necessary changes to legislation and other changes. My colleague, the Minister, Deputy Phil Hogan, and the Government will also examine its recommendations to ensure we learn lessons from this highly expensive tribunal, which has been very costly to the taxpayer but even more costly to our citizens, the political system and the country. Today is a momentous day for politics in Ireland and we must learn lessons from the tribunal report.

I want to speak specifically and particularly on the gender quota element of the legislation, even though the word "quota" is not used in it. I record my satisfaction and pleasure at being a member of the Government that is introducing this legislation. I have stood fairly and squarely behind the idea of quotas because I believe it is the only way we will get the critical mass we need to have somewhere near equal representation of the genders in the political system. It is important we have appropriate representation from both genders in making the laws that apply to everybody in this country, to the 50% of the population that is female and the 50% of it that is male. This is an appropriate way to do that. The legislation is not telling the electorate that it has to vote for women. It is simply giving the electorate the choice to vote for women, and that needs to be put on the record.

Speaking as a woman who has been involved in politics since 1985 and having been a voter prior to that, I find it extremely offensive that there are women in this country who do not have the option to vote for a woman, particularly a woman who shares the same political views as they do. There may well be a woman candidate in their electoral area but they may not want to vote for that woman. I emphasise that women do not just vote for women because they are women, but women want to have the option to vote for a woman who shares their political philosophy, and that is essentially what this is about.

If one checks the tables detailing gender representation in other countries, one will note that Sweden, which has 46.4% women in parliament, and the Netherlands, which has 40.7% women in parliament, have political party quotas. Another example of success is the British Labour Party which implemented gender quotas in its party several decades ago. They were described in a not very politically correct manner as "Blair's babes" at the time but essentially what it did was bring women into politics in Britain. Anyone who watched the budget speech in Britain yesterday would have seen the significant number of women who are still on the Opposition benches.

I have read about and studied this area and I am convinced that having a quota system of candidates - not forcing people to vote for women - brings up the level of participation. I am very strongly in favour of quotas. They do not have to last forever and they should not. I view them as a temporary measure to ensure we bring about a level of participation that provides the type of balance that any healthy democracy requires. Quotas were introduced internally within the Labour Party structure and we have seen the results in that we have greatly increased the participation of women in our party. I am proud of that but we have to introduce quotas more generally and I believe that will have a positive result.

Many women are put off getting involved in politics because they perceive it primarily for men. In every community in Ireland, however, there is a huge level of activity among women and there is no reason that activity should not be translated into participation in the political process. The measure we are taking will greatly assist in that regard.

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