The South West Regional Authority, which has responsibility for one of the country's largest regions, has failed to nominate anyone to an external regional fisheries board because it has no female member and could not meet gender criteria set down by a Government department.
Responding to the matter, the National Women's Council of Ireland (NWCI) said it was time to bring in legislation "to oblige" all statutory bodies, boards and particularly local authorities, to include women. Government targets were simply not being met, and there had to be obligations and penalties, said Orla O'Connor, head of policy at the NWCI.
The regional authority, which advises on development issues and strategic planning matters for Cork and Kerry, was meeting in Killarney, Co Kerry.
However, the meeting of 20 men, made up of councillors from Cork city, Cork county and Kerry County Council as well as Cork county manager Maurice Moloney and SWRA director John McAleer, had to postpone nominating a representative to the South Western Regional Fisheries board.
When the item arose on the agenda Mr McAleer said the Department of the Marine had specified that one of the two nominees to the fisheries board had to be "a lady".
Cllr Paul O'Donoghue (FF) said "unless someone here is going to go for an operation", the requirement could not be fulfilled at the meeting.
Mr McAleer said he had written to the Department of the Marine to outline the situation and was told the regional authority did not have to have a female member and that a female from outside the authority could be nominated to represent it on the board. The matter has been postponed until the next meeting to seek clarification.