The warning to politicians: “TD mind thy seat”, has never been more apt as political parties prepare for a general election by holding constituency selection conventions. The establishment of a gender quota that comes with a set of sharp financial teeth has complicated the process. If one-third of a party’s candidates are not women, it stands to lose 50 per cent of its State funding. For each of the main parties, that figure would exceed €1 million.
The notion of gender equality is fine at national level, but it is eaten by political culture down at the parish pump. Local activists have their own agendas and hate being told what to do. Fine Gael, the party that introduced the reforming legislation, rediscovered that to its cost when Minister for Jobs and Enterprise Richard Bruton failed to be chosen as a candidate in Dublin Bay North last week and had to be added to the ticket. The order from head office that only one man and one woman should be selected had generated a local revolt.
Shaking up the political establishment at local level became inevitable once financial sanctions were introduced. For years, lip service was paid to gender representation but little was done. By making the selection of women candidates a requirement, traditional male support networks were disrupted, offering opportunities to ambitious newcomers. For party headquarters, adding a prominent minister to the party ticket is one thing; favouring a backbench TD is quite another. In spite of that, male contenders may use the Dublin template to displace their sitting colleagues on the questionable basis that they will be nominated at a later stage.
Fine Gael stands to lose more than €2 million in State aid if it fails to nominate a sufficient number of women. That is unlikely to happen. But complaints from threatened TD’s – in all parties – are expected to grow in volume during the coming months as more candidates are selected. Changing the status quo is likely to have unintended consequences, some of which will inevitably be unwelcome to incumbents.