Gender laws force councillor to vacate seat

A WOMAN councillor was forced yesterday to vacate a seat on a powerful committee and be replaced by a male colleague – due to gender legislation.

Three women elected to the city council in Limerick as councillors were also nominated to serve on the Limerick City Vocational Education Committee.

The council was given nine seats on the committee but, under new gender legislation – brought in to encourage more participation by women in politics – the local authority had to replace one of the female members.

The removal of Independent Cllr Kathleen Leddin from the committee, for statutory reasons, was yesterday described as “ludicrous”.

The city council called on the education minister to amend a 2004 regulation.

Limerick city VEC chief executive Deirdre Frawley informed city council members they were only entitled to nominate two women and not three.

Under a gender stipulation in the 2004 legislation on the composition of Education Committee Regulations, she said Limerick City Council had to have at least seven men. Section 4 (b) of this statutory instrument specifies the male/female gender ratio on the council had to be adhered to when it voted its nominees to the VEC.

Ms Frawley wrote to the council, on July 10, stating: “A change (in the regulations) requires that the proportion of men to women elected to the VEC must reflect the proportion of men to women elected to the City Council.

“There are only three women members out of the 17 members of the council and unfortunately, that proportion has to be maintained in the nine members elected to the City of Limerick Vocational Education Committee.”

All three women on the council, Cllr Leddin (Ind), Cllr Maria Byrne (FG) and Cllr Orla McLoughlin (Lab) were originally voted onto the VEC.

At the outset of yesterday’s meeting, Cllr John Gilligan (Ind), who serves on a Mid-Western Regional Authority, said he and Cllr Leddin had now agreed to switch committees.

He said: “I think we are facing a ludicrous situation regarding gender balance.”

Cllr Diarmuid Scully (FG) said it was ironic, legislation brought in to encourage women into Vocational Educational Committees, was now being interpreted the wrong way.