Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)

This Bill includes a measure to introduce a 30% gender balance requirement for political party candidates at the next general election, rising to 40% a further seven years later, and it is this aspect on which I want to concentrate.

The Dáil currently has 25 women TDs, which is just over 15% of the representation of Dáil Éireann. This is the highest percentage ever achieved, but it is still a shockingly low representation of women.

With the passage of this legislation, at the next general election political parties must select at least 30% women and 30% men or face losing half of their State funding. Seven years from the general election where this provision first applies, this will rise to 40%. I, for one, welcome this.

The only argument against this Bill is that it tokenises women. There is no tokenism in a measure that will address an issue of major concern in the functioning of Ireland's democratic system where women are significantly under represented.

This coalition is the first Government to bring forward a meaningful proposal to increase the participation rate of women and to give them the opportunity to be candidates in a general election.

More than 90 years after women in Ireland won the vote, only 15% of Deputies are women. Clearly, there is a glaring democratic deficit. These concerns will not be addressed and will continue until there is positive intervention enforcing parity among candidates.

International bodies such as the United Nations, the Council of Europe and the European Union note that true democracy requires that parliaments should have gender balance. Given the slow speed by which the number of women in politics is growing, quotas present one such mechanism. At the same time, quotas raise serious questions and, in some cases, strong resistance. It can be said of quotas that they are against the principle of equal opportunity for all since women are given preference over men, they are undemocratic because voters should be able to decide who is elected, they imply that politicians are elected because of their gender, not because of their qualifications, and they violate the principles of liberal democracy. However, quotas for women do not discriminate but actually compensate for the barriers that prevent women from gaining their fair share of political seats.

It is the political parties that control the nominations, not primarily the voters who decide who gets elected. Therefore, quotas are no violation of voters' rights. Quotas can contribute to a process of democratisation by making the nomination process more transparent and formalised. Electoral gender quotas open up "the secret garden of nominations" by making the recruitment process more transparent and formalised. Research shows that women need to reach a critical mass of at least one third of the seats of a legislative body to be able to exert a substantive influence. France, Belgium, Spain and Portugal all have legislation which obliges political parties to put forward a percentage of female candidates. This Bill will bring about the balanced participation of women and men in political and public decision making.

We know the diversity of our needs. Women are the experts of their own lives and need to be able to voice and act on those needs. Since women have different life experiences and prioritise issues differently, an increase in the number of women in Parliament would provide a broader spectrum of views, not just on women's matters but on all policy matters. Numbers do matter. Much of the detailed policy work is done in parliamentary committees. Parliament is the place where the country's policy direction is set. A democratic Dáil reflects the views and interests of the society from which it is drawn and allows those perspectives to shape the society's social, political and economic future. When women are involved in all aspects of political life, including as TDs, our society becomes more equitable and our democracy is both strengthened and enhanced.

The passage of this legislation will, I hope, change the face of politics forever. In total, only 91 women Deputies have been elected since the foundation of the State and it is my privilege to be the 73rd of those. It has been a long, hard road for us all to get here but, with initiatives such as this Bill, the road might get just a little shorter.

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