Gender quotas and election candidates

Sir, – Rob Sadlier (September 4th) writes that "the introduction of gender quotas could result in better candidates losing out to weaker candidates".

The decisions that contributed to the bankrupting of the country were made by a Dáil which was nearly 90 per cent male.

It does not look, therefore, as if the better qualified candidates were always chosen in the past.

Marginalising the talents of the half of the population that are women does not seem like a wise policy in what is supposed to be a representative democracy.

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On the contrary, the introduction of gender quotas might go some way to bring in better qualified candidates from the female half of the population. – Yours, etc,

ANTHONY LEAVY,

Shielmartin Drive,

Sutton,

Dublin 13.

Sir, – When all the undergrowth of debate and discussion on meritocracy, practicality, fairness and discrimination is burned away and the true shape of our political landscape is exposed, what we see is a distorted democracy, with half of our population represented by just 15 per cent women in our national parliament.

Gender quotas, while not ideal, represent the lesser evil. We should not have to rely on an evolutionary pace of change to achieve a truly representative democracy. – Yours, etc,

PETER KEENAN,

Bushy Park Road,

Rathgar,

Dublin 6.