City and county see decrease in female councillors elected

An organisation campaigning for more women in Irish politics has expressed its disappointment with the reduction in women serving on both Cork City and Cork County Councils.

Following the local elections which finished on Sunday night, Women for Election has called for new measures, including candidate quotas, to tackle what it describes as “huge gender gap in local government”.

27 female candidates ran for Cork City Council this year and five were elected.

This included two incumbent councillors and three new ones.

Overall, this means there’s a decrease from seven to five women on the council, coming in at just 16% of the 31 members in total.

On Cork County Council, 13 of the 15 female incumbents were re-elected and three new candidates were elected from the total of 41 women running across county.

This gives a decrease from 18 to 16 women, coming in at 29% of the council’s 55 councillors.

“At this rate, it could take many more decades to reach even 40% women on the councils,” said Katie Deegan of Women for Election.

“More women at decision-making tables makes politics work better for everyone,” she added.