Action urged to ensure women go into politics

Women's groups have called on the Government to introduce legislation that would ensure a more equal representation of men and women in political life.

Joanna McMinn, director of the National Women's Council of Ireland, said the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office's (CSO) confirmed the "continuing gross under-representation of women" in areas of public decision-making.

The CSO report shows that women account for 14 per cent of TDs in the Dáil, 34 per cent of State board members and 20 per cent of local authority members.

Ireland ranks 20th place out of the 25 EU member states in terms of the proportion of women in parliament.

Figures for this year show Scandinavian countries have the highest numbers of females in office.

Women account for over 45 per cent of seat holders in parliament in Sweden, followed by Finland at 38 per cent.

Ms McMinn said the CSO report highlighted the failure of the Government to address this "democratic deficit" and the "lack of regard for the interests of half the population in Ireland".

She added: "We are urgently calling on the Government to introduce legislation to ensure that there is at least 40 per cent of either sex in both houses of the Oireachtas as candidates of political parties and in social partnership structures."

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has pledged to increase the proportion of women in the Dáil, and to place a greater emphasis on the selection of female candidates in the forthcoming general election.

However, under his leadership, figures show there is still a major bias towards men.

Less than 10 per cent of Fianna Fáil candidates in the last general election were female, while he appointed just two women to Cabinet.

Under Fianna Fáil's 10-year gender equality action plan, the party aims to increase its proportion of women candidates in local and general elections to one-third.

Green Party spokeswoman on women's affairs Cllr Bronwen Maher said issues that affect women such as childcare, support for carers and improved services for families suffering from domestic violence would not be top of the policy agenda until at least 40 per cent of TDs were women.

She said political parties must take steps to encourage women into politics such as family-friendly Dáil working hours and the establishment of commitments by political parties. to achieve a gender balance.