FF senator says party needs more females and younger candidates
This would bring not only more equality to the party, but also a better quality of decision-making and more fresh policy ideas, she told the Irish Examiner.
Her comments come as former Galway West TD Frank Fahey became the latest of the old guard to hint that he would seek a return to national politics.
Ms Power, one of just two women in the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party, said it will be up to local organisations who should stand for the party but, “it should generally be new people running the next time”.
While the 2011 general election result was a “disaster”, Ms Power said it provides an opportunity to promote younger candidates.
“Traditionally the difficulty in getting either woman or young people on the ticket has been that there was a man there who didn’t want to move. And you had to wait out your time.
“Next time out you are going to have constituencies where there will be an opportunity to run younger candidates, to run women.”
She adds that there were people who lost their seats who should be given a chance to run again. “We had good TDs who worked really hard and they lost their seats, and they have as much right to be considered next time around as anybody else.
“I would just hope that there would also be a large group of people who are new, who are young, and who are female. We need that balance.”
Ms Power added that it made her “uncomfortable” to see a Dáil chamber, made up of 85% men, debating abortion, “an issue that is very intimate to women”.
