Funding confirmed for council caucus

Funding is in place for the establishment of a women’s caucus group for elected members of Cork County Council.

The funding was confirmed at a recent full meeting of Cork County Council where Fine Gael Cllr Eileen Lynch asked that the council now appoint a special committee for the caucus group.

Cllr Lynch said: “We just had a meeting with Cork City Council Women's Caucus Group and it was interesting to meet with them and to see the work that they've been doing. It gave us a lot of food for thought on a lot of starting points where we feel our Cork county caucus could start to work immediately.”

The purpose of the caucus is to address issues that predominately affect women including the relatively low number of women in politics.

Fine Gael Cllr Susan McCarthy said: “We know we still have a bit of work to do to get parity and to achieve an environment where we will see more women feeling that they are able to come into politics.

“I think women's caucus' are definitely instrumental in doing this because it just enables us to go further and to support each other in trying to get certain legislation across the line.”

Patricia Liddy, Director of Services, Cork County Council, said: “Funding has been received from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to support the establishment of the caucus.

“The council may appoint a special committee for a specific purpose. When appointing such a committee, it shall at the same time determine the number and names of members to constitute such committee and shall also fix the quorum which shall not be less than three. The term of office of a Special Committee shall be for the life of the council unless otherwise decided by council.”

There are currently 17 female elected members of Cork County Council.