Gender quota triggers new battle of the sexes

World of Politics with Harry McGee – harrymcgee@gmail.com

Gendermander – not the tastiest portmanteau word ever…but we all know what it means. Fine Gael courted some controversy when it imposed gender quotas in a number of constituencies earlier this year – in Dublin West, Dublin Bay North and Dun Laoghaire.

But it’s been nothing like Fianna Fáil which has gone about the gender quota business with the ruthlessness last seen when Mayo saw off Sligo in the Connacht Final in July.

It all stems from “Big” Phil Hogan’s ambitious, well-meaning but ill-thought out reform plans for national and local government.

On the local side, the jury is still out on his decision to abolish town councils and to merge a number of local authorities.

On the electoral side, he was responsible for cutting the number of Dáil seats from 166 to 158, and cutting the number of constituencies from 43 to 40.

I am completely with him on both decisions. Pro-rata we have far too many parliamentarians and it takes a strong personality to see through a decision that works against the interests of politicians.

As a Fine Gael TD Alice Glenn once said, asking politicians to reduce the number of Dáil Deputies is like asking a turkey to vote for Christmas.

The problem with the whole approach is the carve-up made by the Constituency Commission. It is a tough job trying to keep the number of voters per TD even while still respecting county borders.

But some of the “solutions”, such as those in South Dublin as well as in Galway/Roscommon/Mayo defied logic. The Sligo-Leitrim constituency taking in parts of four counties is also a bit of a smorgasbord.

I think, in the short term, the biggest controversy that has emerged from Hogan’s electoral plans is his decision to introduce gender quotas for candidates.

If women don’t comprise at least 30 per cent of a party’s candidate, it means they will lose a considerable chunk of their State money.

Until now the under-representation of women in our Dáíl has been just short of a scandal and the situation need to be address.

But looking for 30 per cent from the off was a tall order and was sure to post huge difficulties for parties. Some argued with Hogan that it should be 20 per cent but he is said to have described that as tokenism.

If you are a man who is interested in a career in politics and have been working towards it for years, it must leave a bitter taste in the mouth if you are deprived of the opportunity not by your party members but by a committee.

The problem for the two traditional parties is that most of their incumbents are men. The vast majority of Fine Gael TDs are men and most will be defending their seats in the general election.

The upshot of that is that any aspiring young (or not so young) pretender will find the following situation spelled out by party headquarters: “There will be two candidates and one of them must be a woman.”

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.