Kildare Labour members urge women to get involved in politics

Members of the Labour Party's Kildare branch held an event on Monday last, where they urged members of the public, especially women, to consider entering into local politics.

The event was held in order to preface International Women's Day 2023.

Cllr Angela Feeney said about the event, which took place in Lawlor's Hotel in Naas: "We need to make sure that local politics continue to have healthy representation of women and women from a diversity of backgrounds and tonight is about having that conversation. 

"We also need a diversity of people of all ages too."

 She added: "We have women leaders in the heart of community groups, from school committees, to sports clubs.

"We need to encourage these women to take the next step and consider putting themselves forward for local elections," Cllr Feeney said.

In addition, the Maynooth Cllr said that there are quotas for the general elections, but not for local elections as of yet.

She elaborated: "In 2012, the Oireachtas adopted a law obliging political parties to select at least 30 per cent women candidates and 30 per cent men candidates to contest general elections.

"The threshold rises to 40 per cent from 2023 onwards.

"If the quota is not met, political parties will lose 50 per cent of the State funding they receive on an annual basis to run their operations.

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"The quota system challenges political parties to develop a culture and selection process that will encourage women to come forward for election.  

"As you see, Labour bucks the trend here in Kildare with four of our five elected councillors being women. 

"We are actively involved in communities and raise many issues at Council including childcare access, school places, disability services and many more that affect families."

Commenting after the event, she said: "It was an excellent meeting with very interesting contributions from the floor. 

"Labour is also running the 'Sign Up a Sister' campaign during International Women's week, offering free membership to women to join the party."

She concluded: "If you can’t see it, you can’t be it. Public representatives need to be just that: represent the society they represent."