Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

I am a strong fan of encouraging women to take up decision-making positions. If this was a council onto which the Minister was appointing all the members, I would probably accept the amendment. However, the members of the society will elect nine persons and it would be very prescriptive to tell them that four of them should be women. There are six Senators in this House representing the universities, only one of whom is female.