Row erupts in Fine Gael over gender quotas

A ROW has erupted in Fine Gael after a Dáil hopeful told reporters that gender should be a more important reason for women to vote for a candidate than party allegiance. 

Councillor Anne-Marie Dermody was launching an all-women canvass event for Fine Gael on Thursday when quizzed by reporters if she would call on Fine Gael supporters to back a rival party in areas where Fine Gael are not standing any women, she said:

“I have to say ‘yes’ to that. If it’s not a Fine Gael woman, yeah.”

Fine Gael is lagging behind in selecting female candidates and is so far the only major party to have failed to reach the minimum 30% gender quota rule for women candidates. 

The addition of Fine Gael TD John Perry to the ticket in Sligo–Leitrim following a court case which is estimated to have cost the party €500,000 in legal bills means only 28% of the party's candidates are women – far behind both Sinn Féin and the Labour Party, while Fianna Fáil has just reached the bare minimum of 30%

Fine Gael TD Regina Doherty hit out at the councillor's comments saying they are not representative of the party:

“Speaking as a woman and a female TD, I don’t want anyone to vote for me because I am a woman,” she said.

Meanwhile, Dermody's constituency rival, South Dublin Mayor

Sarah Holland (pictured) of Sinn Féin quipped that she is “happy to accept any votes” but urged constituents to vote based on their politics and to support parties of the Left such as Sinn Féin and those who have signed-up to the Right2Change principles:

“Fine Gael are pretty much polar opposite to everything I stand for, so please consider that when choosing who to vote for,” she added.