Caít Keane (Fine Gael)

I am in agreement with the spirit of the amendment. The legislation currently refers to "at least 30 per cent". I encourage all parties to ensure they reach a level of 40%. They will not be prevented from having 40%. They will need to have at least 30%. I urge all parties to strive to achieve 40%. If the Government established a committee to examine legislation and make recommendations, we would criticise it if it were to ignore those recommendations. Senator Bacik mentioned that the committee she chaired recommended that a level of 30% be provided for. I suppose that was the benchmark. In the 1992 general election, 18.5% of all candidates were women. That figure increased to 19.8% in 1997 before dropping to 18.1% in 2002. It decreased further to 17.6% in 2007 and to 15.5% in 2011. By ensuring 30% of candidates will be women, we will almost double the 2011 figure. I recognise that everybody would like to see an equal number of men and women being selected, as the 50:50 by 2020 group which was set up to look at the issue of gender representation is aiming for, but we must walk before we can run. This is a significant advancement in politics. I was not totally in favour of having a quota system, but European-wide statistics have convinced me otherwise. It is the way to go and I have sympathy for the Fianna Fáil Party Members who voted against quotas at their Ard Fheis. When everybody examines the European statistics, it is in our interests to go along with the political parties. I also join Senator Ivana Bacik in asking the Minister to look at the length of term and reduce it to five years.

As women cut their teeth in local politics, we should have another look at the local elections. As this is not referred to in the amendment, I cannot dwell on the point. However, it is important that women are chosen to contest winnable seats. I ask the parties to ensure female candidates are not political fodder but chosen to contest winnable seats. Let us look at the French experience - the parties knew that if female candidates did not contest seats, they would pay the penalty; therefore, female candidates had to contest seats that were not winnable. The French used both methodologies. I do not suppose any political party in Ireland would dream of doing this.