Speaking on the Electoral Amendment Bill in the Dáil this evening (Wednesday), Fine Gael Dun Laoghaire Deputy, Mary Mitchell O’Connor, said that the introduction of electoral gender quotas are a regrettable but necessary measure needed to address the gender balance in political life.

Speaking during the Dáil debate, Deputy Mitchell O’Connor quoted Vivienne Reding, the EU Justice Commissioner, who is planning to legislate for female quotas on private sector boards throughout Europe, as saying ‘I’m not a great fan of quotas…but I like the results quotas bring about’; a sentiment that the Dun Laoghaire Deputy agrees with.

“The only thing quotas have going for them is that they work. They change the context in which we live, especially when that’s in a limiting or discriminatory context.

“We could be waiting decades before parliaments, which are heavily tilted towards male representation, come anywhere near equal representation. We can wait it out over several generations or we can shout stop, introduce a quota system which we maybe do not like but that we know will work.

“In more than fifty countries throughout the world, quotas stipulate that a certain number of political party candidates for election must be women. In fact, the majority of countries with more than 30% female representation in parliament have implemented quotas.

“The reality is that waiting for political parties to see the light and promote more women into the parliamentary ranks doesn’t really work. Putting a quota in place does. A generation ago, equality laws were introduced with the result that a steady stream of women entered into third level education, into professions like medicine and into business.

“The current situation is due to inertia, which is the biggest speed-bump along the road of women’s progress. Quotas will eradicate inertia and allow a wider choice at election time. In short, quotas will represent a major last step towards acknowledging the equality of half of our population.”