The Women's Political Association has urgently appealed to all women voters to exercise their democratic franchise in the European Parliament and local government elections next Friday.
In a statement last night the association's spokeswoman, Ms Edith Wynne, said the electorate was approximately 50-50 women and men yet women were seriously underrepresented in Government. In the last general election in 1997 out of a total of 166 TDs elected only 20 were women. "This is exactly the same number of women that were elected in the 1992 General Election. So representation of women in Government in Ireland has remained at 12 per cent since 1992.
"Next Friday there is another opportunity to cast our votes in order to further increase the representation of women and advance issues affecting women," she said.