FF says it still favours gender quotas, despite voting against

Fianna Fáil says the party still supports gender quotas despite ardfheis delegates voting against the controversial arrangement recently and Senators yesterday opposing the proposed legislation that will implement the measure.

Senators said they voted against the Electoral Amendment (Political Funding) Bill 2011, which passed yesterday, because they wanted the corporate donations element of the law to go further than the Government-sponsored legislation.

A spokeswoman said Fianna Fáil was committed to addressing the gender imbalance within the party and within Irish politics generally. The party has no women TDs and only two female Senators, Averil Power and Mary White.

The proposed law would halve State funding to political parties unless 30 per cent of their general election candidates were women.