There are calls for the new government to form a cabinet of at least 40% women to improve gender balance in Ireland’s politics.

Talks to form the next Government get back underway again today after the Christmas break.

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are expected to enter into a coalition together, along with a handful of Independent TDs to make up the final few seats.

On Breakfast Briefing, spokesperson for Women for Election Ireland Katie Deegan said that Ireland still has a long way to come in achieving a gender balance in our politics.

“We were one of the leaders in Europe with the first ever [female] minister appointed, which was Countess Markievicz in 1919 – but it did take us until another 60 years to appoint Máire Geoghegan-Quinn in 1979,” she said.

“We have 25% women in our Dáil at the moment, we lag in the world's rankings at 95th in the world for gender balance in national parliament – but we know that global research demonstrates that gender diverse leadership will improve our decision making.

“It strengthens our democracy, it strengthens governance outcomes, but it also enhances the trust in politics within the public.”

55 of the 655 women who ran in local elections at City Hall in Dublin celebrating gender equality, 19/05/2024. Image: Flor McCarthy.

Ms Deegan said that while there is a notable number of women who hold high profile and senior positions in Irish politics, this only serves to mask the issue.

“We’ve actually never had any more than four women at one time in the 15-member cabinet in the history of the State,” she said.

“I suppose, one of the kind of problems that we have in Ireland is that the women that we do have hold very senior positions within their parties.

“We have three women party leaders, we’ve got women who hold very high-profile roles, and you know, a lot of women do very forefront media and campaigning and so on, so it almost masks the problem that we have a lack of women in our politics.”

Record-breaking elections

According to Ms Deegan, more women should be run in ‘winnable’ seats during elections.

“We had a record-breaking number of women in both of the local and general elections this year,” she said.

“Women did particularly well in that, they got a huge number of the first preferences – but what we’re seeing is we need more women [running] in winnable seats and not being kind of like, an additional candidate to a male incumbent.

“We know that incumbency is one of the huge barriers to women being successful in government.”

Ms Deegan said her organisation is calling on the next government to commit to gender equality by agreeing to have a minimum of 40% women in their cabinet.

Featured image: 55 of the 655 women who ran in local elections at City Hall in Dublin celebrating gender equality, 19/05/2024. Image: Flor McCarthy.