- Robinson congratulates Hume on Ireland’s Greatest
- Former president says debate on gender quotas in Irish politics should be reopened
- Equality Minister Mary White is considering a proposal whereby State funding could be cut for any political party without a fair proportion of women candidates
Former President Mary Robinson has congratulated John Hume on being named Ireland’s Greatest in an RTE vote, in which she finished in third place.
“I’m very happy that John Hume got the recognition he so richly deserves,” she told me, “For him, for his wife Pat and the family. It’s a very good way for the Irish people to recognise the huge contribution he has made.”
She was speaking at the office of Ireland’s UN Mission in New York last night, where she helped launch a new report into women’s participation in politics, which was co-authored by Ireland.
Mrs Robinson, who was Ireland’s first ever female President, said she had not had yet the opportunity to watch any of the five documentaries in the series - including the one in which economist David McWilliams championed her case.
“My family certainly felt it was a good documentary,” she said, “And I heard that people in the west of Ireland, at least, also agreed. But I will catch up on it soon.”
She said she was glad to been a little distant from the process, and was now happy that “the rest of us can fade into a nice comfortable obscurity again”.
The UN report – which was co authored by Ireland, Northern Ireland, Liberia and Timor Leste (East Timor) – made a number of recommendations on improving women’s participation in formal politics.
These included more family friendly working arrangements for politicians, the engagement of men in support of women candidates and political structures like a women’s caucus in parliament once elected.
One of its key findings was that gender quotas in politics do work, and should not be dismissed as token gestures.
It cautions against viewing them as negative and said they should instead be a key strategy in helping women to enter formal politics.
Mrs Robinson said she believed it was “appropriate” for the issue to be re-examined in Ireland.
“The countries around the world that have been willing to have quotas have made much more rapid progress,” the former president said, “It is up to every country, and some, Ireland among them, feel we don’t need quotas.
“But maybe they should think: how is it that we still have a very small percentage of women? How can we ensure that we get closer to the 50/50? Do we even have the ambition to get close to the 50/50?”
Equality Minister Mary White of the Green Party, who represented the government at the event, said quotas would be considered as part of a wider package of reforms aimed at increasing female participation in politics in Ireland.
“I have said all along that quotas on their own won’t work – we need a strong supportive package,” she said.
She said in recent weeks her team had received responses from all the political parties to a detailed questionnaire on the issue.
She said she is working on a proposal, some of which could be implemented as part of electoral and Dail reform.
These include a change to working hours in Dail Eireann to make them more family friendly, and more women nominees to State boards.
One potentially controversial proposal under consideration is the linking of the State funding of political parties to their gender representations.
“I’ll be looking at the issue of party funding if parties didn’t actually run (women) candidates,” said Minster White, “and maybe having a sliding scale.
“So if you had 20% (female candidates) you lose a certain percentage of your state funding, 25% you’d lose less, and the more you go up in terms of having women on the ballot paper, the more money the party would have.”
Ireland is currently ranked 84th in the world for female representation in politics – just 23 TDS are women (14%) which puts us behind Sierra Leone.
Several high-profile female TDs, including Olwyn Enright (FG), Liz McManus and Mary Upton (Lab), indicated during the summer that they don’t intend to contest the next election.
“There is no question about it,” said Minister White, “Our parliament is not balanced.”
The UN study was presented to the head of UN women Michele Bachelet.
The Irish-hosted event was also attended by Ministers from Liberia, Timor Leste and several senior international and UN diplomats.
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