A few good women

“I don’t see myself as a victim of the system, or anything like that. I made a choice, because it was a 24/7 job that I wasn’t prepared to sacrifice that element of my family for,” says Olwyn Enright.

A generation ago, when Mary Robinson was elected President, it looked like things would turn out differently. But today, women make up just 23 of our 166 TDs. Political correspondent Mary Regan meets the people determined to turn the stats around.

I would say there are probably more token men in the Dáil then there are token women,” says Mary Mitchell O’Connor with a nod of the head and raising one eyebrow. It’s a year since the independent TD Mick Wallace was caught referring to her as ‘Miss Piggy’. When Mr Wallace was embroiled in controversy about his tax settlement, Ms Mitchell O’Connor didn’t ‘kick him’ when he was down. It’s not how women in Leinster House do business, she says.