Burton: Cabinet lacks key knowledge of issues due to shortage of female ministers

The stark gender imbalance in cabinet means many ministers have little direct knowledge of policy issues they are discussing, the Cabinet’s most senior female minister has suggested.

Joan Burton said that when issues such as children, care and “all sorts of struggles”, including the Magdalene Laundries, were discussed, it was “surprising” because “you have a lot of men around the table and they haven’t had much contact with some of these issues”.

The Social Protection Minister said the attitude of her Labour colleague, junior health minister Kathleen Lynch “was pretty much the same” when she joined the Cabinet for discussions on the McAleese report on the Magdalene Laundries.