Few things concentrate the mind like the loss of large amounts of money. So, when Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin spoke about the need for "hard, tough and difficult decisions", he was talking about party income and the need to impose women candidates so as to avoid a 50 per cent cut in State funding. It represented a belated recognition of gender quota legislation, passed in 2012, that requires political parties to ensure one-third of its candidates are women.
Pressure for change within Fianna Fáil has come from a strategy group known as the Markievicz committee. To meet legislative requirements, it recommended that 27 female candidates should be selected to contest the coming general election. At the moment, all Fianna Fáil TDs are men, with two women Senators.
The potential for causing upset to sitting TDs and aspiring male candidates is immense. Resistance to change was evident last year when Fianna Fail nominated fewer than twenty per cent female candidates in the local elections. Its campaign director expressed disappointment. But he can hardly have been surprised because the party spent only €7,000 on encouraging women to participate. Many multiples of that figure were spent by other political parties. The outcome was gratifying, however, and Fianna Fáil emerged as the largest party at council level.
Should it fail to nominate up to 27 female candidates in the general election campaign, the party stands to lose about €1.4 million in State funding. That kind of money would justify causing upset to many sitting TDs and others. Fianna Fáil is not the only party with problems in that regard. On present Dáil representation, Fine Gael would lose almost €2.5 million if its fails to fulfil its gender quota, while funding for the Labour Party could fall by €1.5 million. Quotas are blunt instruments. But they have helped to change cultural norms elsewhere.
The political system in Ireland is flawed. It not only discriminates against women, but against travellers, minority groups and people who are poor. But we have to start somewhere.