"Do we need gender quotas to ensure women are fairly represented?"

[toughbutfair]

The cold hard truth is women carry unborn children and may have significant time off with problems and then have substantial leave after the child birth.

All this is correct, but why would you hire a woman? yes, they are just as smart as men but they will probably get pregnant, all else being equal aren't you better off hiring a man?

It is just nature

[Christine Murray]

the absence is across the board at all levels Clanrickard and discussed throughout the thread. When Francis Jacobs introduced the panel (cf the OP) He said that he represented 20% , (one man / four women) and at that it was better than the lower house of the Oireachtas.

[White Horse]

lrish voters are gender neutral in terms of preference, thus suggesting the problem is a matter of funding, mentoring and selection by parties.

I've never understood how "mentoring" applies in Irish politics.

There appears to be two routes into the Dail, your father (or mother in years to come) dies and you "inherit" the seat. Secondly, you fight tooth and nail, backstab, slander, and eye gouge the competition.

I have never come across a situation where some fortunate person has been "mentored" and has had the seat gifted to him/her.

I have been involved in politics for years and have found conventions to be gender neutral.

The problem with the lack of female candidates is the lack of those willing to put themselves forward due to the nature of our political system.

If good quality female candidates are unwilling to present themselves, a quota system would compel parties to find other female candidates of lesser quality in order to satisfy their legal requirements.

It would diminish the electorates opinion of female politicians as those "quota TDs" would obviously be poorer performers.

[PrinceMax]

Quotas are undemocratic. If we have gender based quotas we should have aged based quotas too. There are a lot of people in their 20s, in this country, but not one TD in their 20s. Pretty irritating.