Candidate gender quota 'crazy' says Aengus O'Rourke

Athlone councillor Aengus O'Rourke has strongly criticised the requirement for parties to field a set number of female candidates, describing it as "a crazy situation".

At this general election parties were required to field at least 40% female candidates.

The gender quota was a factor in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael's decisions to add Athlone candidates Dympna Cunniffe and Tanya Cannon to their tickets just weeks before the election was held. The two candidates had little time to develop momentum in their campaigns and both polled relatively poorly, taking a little over 500 first preferences each.

The late Mary O'Rourke was an outspoken opponent of gender quotas and her son, who is about to contest a Seanad seat after withdrawing from the Fianna Fáil general election selection convention last summer, expressed similar sentiments in the aftermath of Cunniffe and Cannon's performances.

"I can't find too many people any more who are in favour of shoehorning women into positions that they might be reluctant themselves to take on. They might have to be convinced to do it.

"I think even people who were warm on the idea years ago, when the policy first came in, I think are getting cold on it now," said Cllr O'Rourke.

"Certainly on the doors, it's difficult to explain. As someone involved in local politics for 15 years, people are saying to me, 'Well, why aren't you running?'

"And if you say, 'There's a quota we have to satisfy', they will say, 'Can you not object to that... can you not go to head office in Dublin and tell them you're not happy with that?'"

On a national level it was a very good election for Fianna Fáil which emerged as the party with the biggest vote share and highest number of seats.

"The country needs stability and things are going well, notwithstanding the challenges that we have in terms of housing, migration and the cost of living.

"Certainly in terms of our canvass, not necessarily in that order, they were the three big issues," said Cllr O'Rourke.

He attributed the party's electoral success to running good, experienced candidates, and also praised the "assured" leadership displayed by Micheál Martin during the campaign.

Despite the national picture, Fianna Fáil lost a seat in the Longford Westmeath constituency, with Joe Flaherty missing out on re-election.

"I'm very sorry for Joe. He worked hard on the ground. That urban area in Longford, where he is, is very competitive," said Cllr O'Rourke.

His own priority now is the Seanad election, which will take place by postal ballot in the latter half of January, with counting due in early February.

Friday's election was the first to take place since the death of Mary O'Rourke in early October, and Aengus spoke of how much she loved the buzz and excitement of an election.

"If she wasn't here, but was at home, the phone would be hopping here in my hand. 'How does it look? Who is around you? And what are they wearing....particularly the female candidates!'

"These were always the questions Mum asked me. So there's a void. There's definitely a void around this election for me," he said.