Having more female ministers could boost economic growth, Frances Fitzgerald has claimed.
Last week, Micheál Martin announced that the majority of Ministers attending Cabinet would once again be men.
Jennifer Carroll MacNeill was appointed Minister for Health, Helen McEntee will serve as Minister for Education and Youth, while Norma Foley takes over as Minister for Children, Disability and Equality.
Hildegarde Naughton and Mary Butler will also attend Cabinet as Super Junior Ministers.
President Michael D. Higgins this evening signed the Warrant of Appointment for the Members of the Government and the Warrant of Appointment of the Attorney General and presented Ministers with their Seals of Office at a ceremony in Áras an Uachtaráin pic.twitter.com/OlSAIN7uYe
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Former Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald, who now serves on the G7’s Gender Equality Advisory Committee, said “you’d have to be disappointed” looking at the lineup.
“We still only have 25% of women in the Dáil,” she told The Hard Shoulder.
“The European Parliament actually went back a percentage point in the recent elections as well.
“It’s far too little because you want our Dáil and our Cabinet to reflect the diversity of Ireland - certainly, gender is an important element of diversity.”
Leinster House. Picture by: Alamy.com. Before she was elected an MEP in 2019, Ms Fitzgerald served as a Cabinet Minister under Enda Kenny and Leo Varadkar.
In terms of gender equality, little has changed since then.
“I mean, I was in a Cabinet where there were two women - Joan Burton and myself and an Attorney General who was female,” she said.
“Then I was in a Cabinet where there were four women and an Attorney General who was female.
“But we’ve never had more than four senior Cabinet Ministers; this time, it’s gone down to three.”
Verona Murphy TD, Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann, has taken her seat for the first time in the Dáil Chamber. #SeeForYourself #Dáil34
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Although Ireland has had two female Presidents and Verona Murphy was recently elected the first female Ceann Comhairle, no woman has ever served as Taoiseach.
By contrast, two women have served as First Minister of Northern Ireland.
It is, Ms Fitzgerald, something that is holding the country back.
“What we have to try and ensure is that our leaders - and everybody - takes gender as seriously as it needs to be taken for our democracy,” she said.
“All of the evidence is that if you have more equality in your democracy, even your economy does better.”
In last year’s election, 44 women were elected TDs - up seven since 2020.
Main image: Frances Fitzgerald. Picture by: PA Wire/PA Images.
