Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

By way of example, when I was asking people in Kerry to name five public parks, buildings or roads named after women, they were unable to do so. The reason was that everybody who picks the names of the public parks are men because they are all men on the committee. Until such time as half a committee is made up of women, the men will unknowingly bring the bias of picking their favourite footballer or politician, who will also be a man. The bias therefore continues.

There is merit in giving an opportunity to the Government to pick between two people, one of each gender. The Minister would make a decision based on that. I made this point yesterday on a different section. The bodies that make the nominations are themselves an issue because they are mostly made up of the same groups of which Irish society is always composed. In respect of the Bar Council and the Law Society, the decision-making bodies, how many of their members are men and how many are women? The Senator may correct me but I think it would be predominantly men. They would, therefore, unknowingly perpetuate the situation whereby the person put forward is most likely to be a man. I think it is a fair compromise by Senator Bacik, who is not seeking to bring forward gender quotas as such.