AS COUNTING IN the 2024 local elections draws to a close, local authorities in Ireland now just have two more women sitting on them than before.

Ahead of going to the polls, womens’ organisations were hopeful that 2024 could be a recording-breaking year for female representation at local government level.

It has been record-breaking in the sense that more women than ever before (681) have contested a seat in the local elections, but of those elected the dial has only been shifted forward marginally. 

This year, out of a total of 949 seats, 248 women have been elected.

This equates to 26% of local election councillors being female – up just marginally from 24% in 2019. 

Some 225 were elected in 219, however, over the five years since, the number of women on local authorities increased to 246 – 26% female representation.  

So on a net position, Irish local authorities have just two more women on them after this election than they did before it.

Ireland continues to have far more limited female political representation than other EU countries and has not managed to alter its current ranking of 22 out of the EU27 for the number of women in local politics. 

Time for quotas?

The National Women’s Council (NWC) and Women for Election both now believe that gender quotas are needed at local election level to counteract the stagnation in the number of women in local government.

“It is very disappointing that in 2024, we still have not broken the critical mark of at least 40 % women’s representation at local level,” NWC’s head of campaigns Rachel Coyle said.

Gender quotas are already in place for national elections in Ireland which stipulate that 40% of a party’s candidates must be women.

At local level however, Women for Election CEO Brian Sheehan makes the point that the percentage of women candidates ranged from 25% to 51% across the main parties in this election.

Fianna Fáil fared the worst at 25% followed by Fine Gael at 29%. 

“Despite their successes in the election, did not have enough women running to deliver a material gain in the overall percentage of women councillors elected,” Sheehan said. 

Women for Election is now calling for the Government to implement a candidate quota for the next local elections at 40%.

“In the meantime, political parties can take comprehensive steps towards redressing the gender imbalance, including women-only shortlists for co-options and developing internal party rules that mandate 50:50 in all internal positions and in candidate selection conventions,” Sheehan added.

A closer look

Women for Election has collated data on the gender breakdown of the 2024 local elections, available here. 

Taking a closer look at this year’s results, 32 out of 166 LEAs (local electoral areas) have zero women seated on them, down from 35 before this election.

South Dublin County Council had the highest proportion of women at 48%, second to this is Louth at 45%. 

On Dublin City Council, women previously made up 50% of councillor members, this has dropped to 40% however having gone from 31 women to 25 after this election.

 Donegal County Council has the lowest level of female participation with just 8% of councillors women.