Fianna Fáil Launch Politics Gender Equality Plan

A comprehensive new strategy to increase the number of females participating in Irish politics has been unveiled by Fianna Fáil.

The party are encouraging females to stand as candidates in the upcoming local and national elections, with a number of measures being designed specifically to help them progress.

The Gender Equality Action Plan lays out a number of measures, including:

• The appointment of a Gender Equality Officer based in Fianna Fáil Headquarters



• A target of women making up one-third of the party local election candidates



• The establishment of a new Fianna Fáil Women Network to organise events for female members and provide support to female candidates



• A focus on encouraging more women to take up internal leadership positions, for example as constituency chairpersons



• A requirement for all constituency organisations to draw up their own plans to boost female participation locally.

The action plan was produced by the Taskforce on Female Participation in Fianna Fáil, which is chaired by Senator Averil Power.

"Irish politics has one of the worst gender balances in the world. With men making up 85% of our Councillors and TDs, women are massively underrepresented in local and national decision-making.

"Fianna Fáil is determined to help change this by encouraging more women to put themselves forward as candidates and giving them extra supports to help them get elected.

"Not only is this a core element of the party renewal process, it will also help make our political system more representative and improve the quality of political decision-making," Senator Power added.

(MH/JP)