Sir, – S Costello (March 26th) indicates that the highest level of female participation in the Dáil stands at 24 per cent under what is termed a "very broad umbrella" of "Independents", whereby smaller parties are included in this umbrella. In fact only two (Catherine Murphy and Maureen O'Sullivan) of the 14 Independent TDs elected in 2011 were female, and on this basis the actual figure is only 14 per cent. The Socialist Party and the People Before Profit alliance are regarded as political parties in the Oireachtas register. Furthermore, a number of female TDs have become Independent since 2011 due to forfeiture of a parliamentary party whip, but since they were elected to the Dáil through a party initially, they would be disregarded from the accurate independently elected female representation figure.
As regards the Seanad, there were five Senators who won an election with an independent mandate in 2011, and all five were male. Therefore the figure for Independent female representation in the Upper House would be 0 per cent only for the fact that the Taoiseach nominated four Independent female senators (Senators O’Brien, O’Donnell, van Turnhout, Zappone). It is only possible to infer therefore that the problem of low female representation in the Oireachtas applies universally and irrespective of party or non-party affiliation.
The main substantive point in my previous letter, however, is that if a grouping of TDs intend to caucus together and, for example, there is a whip system applied to that arrangement, I cannot fathom why those TDs can be described in pragmatic and technical terms as “Independent”.
The term “national movement” is being invoked with respect to the tentative alliance that in de facto terms would be acting as a political party in the next parliament. A lack of any formal onus being imposed on such a hybrid at the next election with respect to gender quota legislation ought to be sharply regretted in that context. – Yours, etc,
JOHN KENNEDY,
Goatstown,
Dublin 14.