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THE FIRST WOMEN-only meeting of TDs and Senators will be held tonight – but has already become the subject of controversy after one female TD said she would refuse to attend.
The meeting, facilitated by Fine Gael deputy Mary Mitchell O’Connor, will hear submissions on the representation of women and discuss how to increase the number of female TDs and Senators.
However, Labour’s Joanna Tuffy told TheJournal.ie she would not be attending as she “strongly disagrees” with the idea of a women-only meeting.
“Many people would take offence at a meeting to which only men members would be invited to,” she said. “We’re not elected as women TDs or men TDs, we’re elected just as TDs.”
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Tuffy said she had “no difficulty with the topics to be discussed”, but said there was an “element of stereotyping” to the idea, which would risk the issue of female representation being “pigeonholed as a women’s issue”.
However, Mary Mitchell O’Connor stressed the social aspects of the meeting. “It’s going to be above party politics,” she said. “Really it’s intended to foster attitudes of solidarity between women, because we are a minority group.”
When asked about Tuffy’s criticisms, Mitchell O’Connor – who previously wrote an opinion piece on the issue for TheJournal.ie – said the meeting was the first of its kind and was simply intended to explore the issues.
” What we would hope down the line is for more women to be involved in politics – to be elected in local elections and then to the Oireachtas,” she said. “I would hope that instaead of 25 women, we’ll be looking at 50 women in the next Dáil.”
Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government Phil Hogan has said he intends to introduce a gender quota in general elections, and there will be fines for any political party that fails to make sure that at least 30 per cent of their candidates are female.
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The massive support for independents and the amount of undecided voters is proof that we are in a broken form of democracy. We need a new system. I haven’t got the solution but as the saying goes you don’t need to be a fireman to point out a building that’s on fire.
This poll reminds me of the old advert – “We don’t like your type round here !”
To all backbenchers who can’t do maths – 16% means you LOOSE your seat !
So stay in for another few weeks and become absolutely despised or organise an election – those Fine Gael and Labour backbenchers who leave now and stand as Independents are the only ones that have a hope of retaining their seat …
Not enough voting emigrants left for ye at 16% !
Regardless of who is put in we need a mechanism to directly lobby the government by referendum. We currently only get that when our constitution is impinged on and I will vote for any party or group of independents that put that in bold on the manifesto.
Direct democracy, works for the Swiss very well. Public votes every few months on important issues. Let the people decide, not these idiots we have in our government.
FG and Lab were given a chance to help the people of Ireland. They have decided to tax and levy those who are working into near poverty. Five point plan(Bull&hit) should be renewed to include restoration of peoples living standards to above breadline. Let the politicians hit the European bondholders as hard as they hit those who did not gamble or finance overpriced bricks and mortar.
I’ve said it before, the electorate are now in the habit of voting parties out not in. A warning for the next party that gets in, your jobs are on the line if you don’t start serving the people who put you there. No more lies
Simon, when the next election is on and they cone banging on my door, I will be handing each and everyone a ‘contract’ to sign so if in power they break that promise/ contract they will see me in court. I really believe any promises should be legally binding, we are THEIR employer after all. There has to be consequences for break of contract. A bit idealistic of me I know, but this whole area needs to be looked at.
If independents gained control, one priority should be to slash the salaries and exorbitant pensions that ministers and senior civil servants get after the next election- and apply it retrospectively.
The thought of the Labour, FG and FF so-called elite having the smug look wiped off their faces would bring a little cheer to anybody’s heart.
I think somewhere around the 12/13% is their core vote. So they clawed a bit back. Used to think it was going to be a ff/FG next gov. With these polls it could be anything. More likely ff/FG/ selection of indp candidates.
History repeating itself. FG had a chance to actually make a difference & decided that they’d screw the country & guarantee their own futures financially if not politically. They have lied & when theyre not busily screwing the country they spend the remainder of that time just screwing up. The only surprise in this story is that 16% of voters would waste a vote on them. Roll on Dec 10th.
that’s what happens when you want people to vote for you and promise them things will change at least in the running of the country and you get voted in and completely change become more arrogant and uncaring, pick on the least well off in society and continue to spend taxpayers money like it is water
good riddance to them all, the generation of politicians we have had in the last 20 years are a shame on us
People go on about it bringing in €4.5 billion in taxes but if the scrapped it they’d get most of it back in VAT and income tax from all the extra people that would be put back to work. I suspect FF will promise to scrap it if elected and then we’ll be back to that shower of c..ts again.
@ RS: As seen in the locals, SF/Independents could make SERIOUS gains in a GE. The fact that a GE would allow the public, unlike the local elections, to bring about a decisive sea-change in our politics may bring even more to the polling booth for the first time.
Perhaps it could jam-man but the seas ebb and flow when it comes to general elections, hence you get clowns like Mick Wallace representing nobody other than themselves.
Kenny always strikes me as someone who spends a lot of time conversing with himself in front of a mirror, running his finely manicured fingers through his silky hair and with the Wu Tang Clan providing the soundtrack to his life in the background.
Hey David. Leave The Wu Tang Clan out of this. I think Kenny is more a Celine Dion fan.
Maybe Status Quo with the seminal, Down Down Deeper and Down which is quite obviously about FG poll ratings.
It seems no one is giving a feck about all the good news released to date or all the mud being slung at SF.
The 10th will be interesting ie numbers on the street.
The nation fawned at Fianna Fail’s feet and the party took us to the brink of collapse, despite all the obvious signs that Fianna Fail were just in it for themselves, corrupt and embezzling.
Now it is irrelevant to so many people that the mud slung at Sinn Fein is largley composed of rotting truths.
We are fools waltzing once again towards our next infatuation with a party ‘of the people’ that will whisper sweet nothings in our ear and whitewash over reality.
John, it all depends on one’s view of what reality is. Reality for the rich and the political classes is totally different to reality for ordinary people.
We live in a time of information, people see siteserv, people see IW, people see patronising attempts of the media to skew peoples wills, people see destroyed letters, people see junior bond holders getting paid, people see water balloon ‘terrorists’, people see waiting lists, dead health care system, bloathed inefficient services, people see obsence pensions and a lack of accountability…people see people rising and it’s frightening the status quo..shiiiiiiiiiit, let them hear us loud and clear on the 10th!!!
If you suspect you have cancer, it doesn’t automatically follow that you should drink the bottle of bleach being marketed by a snakeoil salesman just because he tells you it will cure you.
mudslinging at sf…. fine gael have form here as well in 96 when they were in power they refused to set up an inquiry in the wexford/ferns debacle and called two local councilers who brought it to their attention irresponsible for suggesting that there would be any enquiry. Michael noonan should remember not to throw stones as he was the health minister who refused to meet with the councilers and passed them off to Austin curry
strange that was not reported recently… thank you phoenix magazine
@ J Gahan. Repeatedly saying things like ” composed of rotten truths” etc does not make your assertions true or factual. So would you like to furnish us with some evidence to back those claims up please.
If you suspect you have cancer you get an informed opinion…media tries to convince us that this cancer in our society (fg/lab/ff) is doing us good…people are becoming informed, Irish people are rising above the smearing and petit name slinging…let them hear us all on the 10th, let them know we are not lying down anymore settling for scraps and patronising pats on the head..return the country to the people
Joe Costello on Morning Ireland singing the Government chorus, Mary Lou trying to distract attention from Sinn Fein. Joe your Government is the only ones trying to distract attention. It will not work Joe leave with some dignity now.
In addition to SF.. Independents, People before profit, Socialist party will be the big winners come election time, I truly believe most Irish people have woke up and realised the vicious cycle of FF, FG, Lab isn’t and won’t work as they are all the same.
Of course you’ll always have certain types who’ll vote for them but I think their days are numbered.
Regressive taxes make it harder to buy a loaf of bread. Progressive taxes make it harder to change the Mercedes for a new model. This Govt has introduced nothing but Regressive taxes. Thus the unpopularity.
Taxes in this country are too progressive, you can’t expect the better off to pay for everything, it removes any incentive to work hard. The top 10% of households pay 50% of the tax in this country. To be in the top 10%, the household needs to be earning €100k, that could be a couple on €50k each. That’s a very progressive tax rate. What regressive taxes has the government brought in?
so by normal banking mortgage rules only the top 10% can purchase a property in Dublin …
2.5 times the salary …
I’d say the top bankers made an absolute fortune in bonuses when the billions were being ran through ould Eire – would they have joined the new Landlord class I wonder
FF. Have proven themselves to be corrupt over the years.
FG. Promised us a complete change in how things are done, they’re no better.
Labour. I’d never vote for labour due to their links with trade unions.
Greens. Who?
SF. Not a hope in hell would I vote for them.
SP. Let’s create a Union of Irish Socialist Counties. Someone needs to show them communism didn’t work.
Independents associated with AAA. NO. They love that word. No to everything.
I’d like to see a new party started by someone like Shane Ross, with members of similar quality and standards. I’d give them my vote.
We’d better just hope that we get 50 TDs like Shane Ross rather than 50 like Michael Lowry.
To be honest, most of the Independents in the Dail aren’t worth voting for.
I’d like to see more analysis of the Others figure.. Is it all votes for Independents or does it disguise a rise in support for the Socialists, SWP/PBP or even the Greens.
Shane is working with leftwing TDs in his new alliance such as Cuba Admirer Finian McGrath and ex WP pro SME and living wage stalwart John Halligan.
Shane spurned what he called the Fundamentalist ideals of Lucinda Creighton, despite her sincerity in her fundamentalism.
As the man himself says, he goes abroad quite a lot and he has some good ideas on political, justice and democratic reform, supports reversing the worst of the cuts on disabled and others, and some form of Direct democracy and power decentralisation like in Switzerland where he studies, as well as ending cronyism and inbred Gombeenism.
Hardly the PD people paint him as and sounds to me from his speeches and attacks on the main parties he and others would be all too happy to go in with SF or prop up SF in exchange for real reform.
As Einstein said Tom, insanity is doing the same thing again and again and expecting different results. Change is what is required. Here are some Eu countries that have seen fit to elect left wing governments recently. Spain,Italy,Portugal,Greece,Slovakia. Do you see a connection between these countries and Ireland. Are the peoples of these countries “loonies” or gullible fools buying easy cures from the snakeoil salesman. I think not.
No they wouldn’t because that lying smug snake Varadkar would just slither in and he is just as revolting as Kenny. Sooner a general election comes the better FG are gone regardless of what they do. Only difference is do they leave with honor or do they drag out to 2016 and become the second most hated party in this state. Behind FF and with Labour nipping at their heels.
Labour would be this biggest party in Ireland today if their leadership had picked the people who voted for them over their own personal gain, Gilmore, Rabbit, Burton and their ilk saw the last election as their last chance to grab a ministerial pension. Shortsighted greed will see them go the same way as the PDs and the Greens.
See the problem with FG/Labour is the result of the last GE. Both party’s arrogance grew out of this result but what they both forgot was it wasn’t an endorsement of FG or Labour it was a anti Fianna Fail vote.
FG/Labour had the best chance of making a huge difference but they blew it by continuing where Fianna Fail left off.
Fine Gael get what they deserve. They had their chance to get rid of Enda Kenny and they chickened out. He got elected simply because there was no one else. If they want any chance of survival they must dump him now.
1. Support for FG/LAB is almost equal to support for SF alone
2. Gerry dropped 11 points, but still is the #1 most liked leader in the country, while Enda is on the bottom and Joan is next to him.
The government can try and spin it however they want, but it is pretty clear they have no mandate and their numbers will only continue to drop. If they don’t pull the plug now, wait until the first water bills hit peoples doorsteps the same week this government pays out hundreds of millions to junior bondholders, something they also promised during the run up to the last GE that they would by no means ever do.
Don’t forget that fg are planning to privatise the health system and hit us all with a bill for compulsory private health insurance which will run into thousands per family per year. Way in excess of current rates
In fairness to Enda, he did go to the Pantibar.
Rumour has it that he dropped a 2 euro coin while he was there and had to kick it halfway up the street before he could bend down to pick it up.
Personally, I don’t believe that happened at all.
” I only use notes!” …Ivan Yates – and he expecting us to think that he had to rummage down the back of a couch for the dinner – Anglo-Saxon to his self-admitted core !
It now seems that they are asking the people that are reading the comments on the journal. We will now see them being much more humble to other posters :)
Fine Gael were warned, back in 2010, about the inadvisability of retaining a buffoon-like empty vessel such as Enda Kenny as their leader. A plurality of the Fine Gael parliamentary party did no listen, and now the desert of barren fruit is plain to see.
People will only vote independent if there is a good independent to vote for. I certainly wouldnt vote for an ex ff or ex fg independent. Sf probably wont get transfers so we are looking at a fg/ff coalition it seems.
Inda, MeHole, Mungo Jurry and iPhone Joan…Jaysus, have we nobody better to represent us in our wonderful island of talented, creative, articulate people than those 4 muppets?
BE careful what you wish for, Paul Murphy on Radio wants a wealth tax of 10,000 on anyone who is a millionaire. Idiot would send every company and entrepreneur out of the country.
You do realise that if you have a million sitting in the bank, you pay about that in CGT anyway? Very wealthy people are used to paying some tax on what they gain, and would not be put off by a wealth tax as much as you think (as long as they don’t pay it twice)
Of course, everyone would always like to keep as much as they can.
”Sinn Féin is again the most popular party in the country according to this poll, as 17% of people said they would vote for them, though the party has fallen slightly since the October poll. The Maíria Cahill controversy does not appear to have damaged party popularity much but leader Gerry Adam’s own rating dropped 11 points. Despite that, he is still the most popular party leader.” Sinn Fein and Ming the merciless and Barrett and Ruth Coppinger and Joe Higgans could rule and do well. FG and FF and Labour can F right off….Broken promises!!
Doesn’t matter who’s most popular party. Fact is politics is changing . The ‘old’ parties haven’t changed with the times and think they’ll be elected because of their fathers/uncles etc. Dynasty politics is well gone. We’re tired of the same old stuff, same faces that have been around for decades.
Shows you what idiots there are in this country that Fianna Fail are likely to be the biggest party in the next Dail. I guess people are so thick they don’t realize that Fianna Fail are actually the ones who signed an agreement with the Troika to introduce water charges.
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