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Home Page > News > Women candidate quotas for future Irish elections are a farce

Women candidate quotas for future Irish elections are a farce

Political correctness runs amok as Irish insist on 30 percent quota

PATRICK ROBERTS,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Friday, May 25, 2012, 9:13 AM

Updated Friday, May 25, 2012, 9:13 AM

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Former Irish presidents Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese

Photo by Google Images

I’m all for equality when it comes to women but the Irish government has really got their knickers in a twist with their insistence that 30 per cent of all candidates for the Irish parliament be women.

Along with eliminating eight seats in parliament it is now mandated that the next parliamentary election must be composed 30 per cent of women candidates.

It is the kind of politically correct nonsense that would rightly get short shrift in America if it were proposed here.

I think more women in politics would be a great idea and if one become Prime Minister or president then fair play to her but if she does so as part of a quota system then she does not deserve to.

Like it or not, women like Margaret Thatcher and Hillary Clinton inspire because they achieved their political prominence by the dint of their own effort and were not helped along by any quota.

Sure it is hard but life is like that sometimes . It was no picnic being the first Black man to win the White House either I’m sure but it was achieved.

Imagine the uproar if Obama had achieved the milestone as part of a quota system? He would rightly be a weakened president.

To receive special treatment is to condemn irish women for ever to second class status if they happen to be successful.

I’m sure Angle Merkell or Julia Goodard in Australia would much prefer to have achieved power they way they did, the old- fashioned way rather than have some quota ensure that their seats were completely safe to begin with.

Ireland’s effort to force political equality is bound to fail but will no doubt be applauded by the liberal media there as some kind of breakthrough.

It is nothing of the sort and merely puts women in the same place they were for generations in Irish politics, as second class citizens who are not allowed to stand on their own two feet.

Among the many bad ideas that have flowed out of Ireland this past half decade this one is among the worst.

Nster.com

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33 Comments

15 - 33 | See all comments

lcobryan | Sep 07, 2012, 05:31 PM EDT

The problem, at least in the US, is that because of the entrenched males in the parties, weak men are given $$ and opportunity that exceptional women are not. Women have to fight within and against their respective party insiders in primaries to win and then go on to a general election. This is a systemic handicap worldwide. We all suffer. Women have so many more responsibilities and others dependent on them that when they choose to run, you get ,for the most part, exceptionally talented and committed individuals. To say that the boys have all earned their places is ridiculous. The women mentioned, PM Thatcher and Secretary of State Clinton, without question. have earned their places. The scrutiny they were subjected to and the qualifications they brought/bring to the table are 1000 X's their male peers. More women would follow through on running, having petitioned to be on ballots, if they weren't treated like second class citizens or outsiders. Barvo, Ireland. 30% is a start.

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Bailey2000 | Jun 02, 2012, 11:24 AM EDT

In the Irish electoral system where each constituency has multiple seats it may result in Male TDs/MPs choosing particularly weak female running mates in order not to split their vote in a multi seat constituency. This may result in not only more women but women who have little authority within their own party. By contrast it should also increase the strength and perhaps quality of the Independent candidates of all genders who will come through regardless of the quota system. It seems hard to fathom that the quality of Irish politicians could inadvertently be weakened even further by these unintended consequences.

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Brenn69 | Jun 01, 2012, 12:14 PM EDT

That's a sexist policy. Beyond stupid.

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IrelandNorth | May 30, 2012, 08:42 AM EDT

Niall! Bloggs are being censored by party or parties unknown. Have tried submitting pretty good blogg on this story, which has disappeared into cyber space, as on several other issues over time. Can anything be done about Big Brother, or whoever the eavesdroppers may be?

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pilib04 | May 28, 2012, 06:34 PM EDT

As for the subject of quotas, I think it's an interesting idea. I'm very interested in how it would work. I can understand how we could require quotas on political parties. However, how would indpendents work. That seems to be the area of the fewest female candidates. Require one woman for every two men? Great female additions to the Dail would include Sorcha Nic Cormaic, Helen McCormack, Therese Ruane, Kathleen Funchion and Rose Conway-Walsh.

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pilib04 | May 28, 2012, 06:25 PM EDT

Patrick Roberts mentions Margaret Thatcher as his argument against a quota system for Irish Elections. Wow. Margaret Thatcher is a war criminal who should be on trial as we speak. Margaret Thatcher is a liar who can never be believed. I look forward to the day when we will dance on her grave. Mr. Roberts has absolutely no credibility after his statement on Bloody Thatcher!

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eiriamach | May 28, 2012, 01:22 PM EDT

Seeing American conservatives complaining about quotas, I feel the irony. They forget that the first (and only) person to introduce quota hiring for federal contracts in the USA was GOP President Nixon, who wrote the rules for (Pres. L.B. Johnson's) Executive Order 11246. Nixon added "goals and timetables" to the requirements of non-discrimination and affirmative action in the Order. With the mess he created, Nixon made real affirmative action impossible; those who opposed equal treatment would always afterward call it a "quota system." And that's still the perception now, isn't it, that government must use quotas to achieve fairness? No, it need only make affirmative efforts to extend opportunities and include all qualified individuals in the pool of candidates. But this means breaking down the 'old boys' club' methods of filling jobs.

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luxefaire | May 28, 2012, 10:11 AM EDT

i will tell you what you need, although it is my experience that people do not really want to know this information,. what you need is what America needs, and the whole world in fact needs, a LOT LESS government PERIOD, and a currency which is beyond manipulation by the zionazis. Good luck with that, har. having been told all my life that homosexuality is wrong, but i must love jesus, has no doubt twisted my brain into the shape of a pretzel or something like it, and i have gone away from all that into worship of the Goddess, which seems natural to me, so I really like women in leadership and would like to see 80% or so, though in real fairness to the issue I must agree with ciaradexy: Quotas are wrong. The best person for the job should get it regardless of gender or any other factor.

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Scrivner | May 27, 2012, 10:52 PM EDT

I am waiting for some polititians to visit their surgeons for some transgendered action just so that they could slip in under the quota! There will be a fire sale on certain organs.

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merefalow | May 27, 2012, 09:32 PM EDT

isn't the country in enough trouble?.well maybe they might be better than the lot who have led Ireland down a bad road.

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brian22 | May 26, 2012, 10:34 PM EDT

As for Julia Gillard, PM of Australia, a immigrant from Wales when she was 12 years old. You can have her back anytime, in fact I will give her a lift to the airport and pay her fare!

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Searlit | May 26, 2012, 01:45 PM EDT

Bythebay, you can't blame it on the female politicians. We actually lost a women from Congress the last election. Many politicians suffer from self-aggrandisement, they are no more qualified to run the country than most of the rest of the population. If we really wanted to fix things every country could appoint geniuses specific to each problem. I believe in peace not war. Protestors get arrested, though. The financial collapse that was let happen under Bush could have been avoided,too. Women don't have all the answers, either, however they deserve the right to equal representation. Forgive me, for not being a resident. I may not have been born at all, if 3 sets of Great-Grandparents hadn't found it necessary to emirate from Ireland during the mid 19th century. Do try to cheer up Bythebay.

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Bythebay | May 26, 2012, 11:35 AM EDT

Searlit, we in Ireland aren't too happy with what the US has been doing and the wars you can't get out of.

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Bythebay | May 26, 2012, 11:33 AM EDT

Searlit, well you don't live in Ireland so what you think is immaterial.

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Searlit | May 26, 2012, 11:32 AM EDT

@ciaradexy, "the best person for the job?". People over the pond don't seem to think the members of the Dáil have been doing very well for Ireland, for awhile now. I read about the complaints of cronyism, etc.. So, the way to change that is to change legislation. The Boys Club needs to become the People For a Better Ireland Club. That would be an example for the world to follow.

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