Clarke slams "archaic system of voting" on Westmeath County Council
The practice by Westmeath County Council members of voting by a show of hands was described as “archaic” by local Sinn Féin Deputy, Sorcha Clarke, in a hard-hitting Dail speech last week during a debate on the recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality.
Deputy Clarke was 37 weeks pregnant with her fourth child when she was first elected to Westmeath County Council in May 2014, and she described how she was left with no option but to cancel a scheduled hospital appointment so that she could attend the first meeting of the local authority.
“At the very first Council meeting, I was actually supposed to be in hospital for tests, but there was no mechanism for me to vote by proxy, in absentee or in advance, and that’s because of the archaic system of voting by a show of hands” she said.
The only advice she was given is that she should have considered a judicial review. “That wasn’t good enough seven years ago, and it’s still not good enough today” said the Sinn Féin Deputy, who has urged the Government to “do much more” to deliver gender equality and has warned that many women still face “unacceptable barriers” to working after they have children.
“The reality is that, in 2021, many women are expected to work as if they don’t have children, but they’re expected to parent as if they don’t have careers” said Deputy Clarke.
She said that without a co-ordinated approach to gender inequality “we are going to be having the same conversations the next time the Citizens’ Assemby on Gender Equality reports and that would be failing the women and young girls of Ireland.”
Deputy Clarke also said that, while gender quotas are “key” to addressing female participation in politics, “what we are essentially doing is papering over a crack in the foundation” unless the “systemic and very illogical issues” that still exist are addressed.
“It’s not just urgent action that is needed, but co-ordinated and monitored action across an array of areas” she said.