TÁNAISTE EAMON Gilmore has denied claims that his party’s women TDs had lost out to male colleagues when it came to the allotment of ministerial portfolios.
In defending his decision to appoint Brendan Howlin and not Joan Burton to the new Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Mr Gilmore argued that as Minister for Social Protection, Ms Burton would be in charge of the biggest-spending department.
Mr Gilmore added that Ms Burton’s grasp of economic issues, allied with her experience, would be availed of at the Cabinet table.
In reply to the wider charge of sexism in that women seemed to be overlooked in favour of men, Mr Gilmore said in addition to Ms Burton, there were three women Ministers of State, and the first-ever woman Attorney General, Máire Whelan.
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, Mr Gilmore contended that the "position a person holds in Opposition is not necessarily the one they get in government".
He said that the Department of Social Protection should not be downgraded as that portfolio had been held by the party’s leader and deputy leader in the past.
Mr Gilmore was asked about the short meeting – which lasted two minutes – to inform her of her appointment to Social Protection. He denied Ms Burton had expressed or shown disappointment.
“No. Joan Burton is a very experienced politician,” he said.
“She’s somebody who is an outstanding member of the Labour Party.
“She is deputy leader of the Labour Party and somebody I work very closely with and somebody who is going to do an outstanding job both as Minister for Social Protection and in contributing to the overall Cabinet and Government discussions and decisions in relation to economic policy,” Mr Gilmore added.
Ms Burton has made no public comments about the controversy since the ministerial announcements were made on Wednesday. On RTÉ radio today, she is expected to give her first interview since becoming Minister.
Several of Ms Burton’s female colleagues in the Labour Party expressed disappointment following the Cabinet announcement on Wednesday, arguing that she had held the position of party finance spokeswoman for almost a decade.
Senior party figures also accepted that she was disappointed at not being handed the finance role.
Yesterday, Susan McKay, director of the National Women’s Council, said the new Cabinet represented “jobs for the boys”.
Writing in The Irish Times, Ms McKay asserted that Mr Howlin was less qualified than Ms Burton, an accountant who has been finance spokeswoman for nine years.
“Brendan Howlin has no significant experience of finance, but he’s a man,” she wrote.
Earlier this week, the chair of the Labour Women branch, Katherine Dunne, said that important as both ministries were, the stereotypical roles for women in Cabinet had been given to women.
Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn suggested on Thursday that Mr Howlin’s wider ministerial experience in addition to his skills as a negotiator – he was involved in all four coalition negotiations involving Labour – were among the factors that led to his appointment.