Sir, – Like Noel Whelan ("Sadly, clothes will be an issue for female candidates", Opinion & Analysis, November 6th), I care not a whit what outfits our female representatives wear day in, day out. I do however care out about how our female election candidates are selected – and under the gender quota law, a significant proportion of female party candidates will be selected not by ordinary party members at convention, but by party HQs through a range of mechanisms (ie gendermandering, gender quotas, addition to the ticket, etc). This matters because the right of ordinary party members to select party candidates should be inalienable. Far from being a "democratic revolution", the current gender quota legislation is actually damaging a part of our democracy.
Note that I have referred to the “gender quota legislation” thus far. Irrespective of people’s views on gender quotas, the law itself is bad and shoddy law.
Its proponents claim it guarantees “choice”. It does nothing of the sort either explicitly or implicitly and in its practical and inevitable working out has resulted in male candidates being denied access to candidature (the fundamental right to go before convention), and restricted (or sometimes removed) the right of ordinary members to select candidates.
The gender quota law needs to be either radically revised – to guarantee choice, and indeed guarantee the right to candidature and the right of ordinary party members to select candidates – or scrapped and replaced with an alternative, more democratic, mechanism to encourage female participation in politics. – Yours, etc,
DJ MOORE,
Naas,
Co Kildare.