FG mayor quits party in dispute over gender quota directive
Town councillor Pat Hussey, a member of Fine Gael for 35 years, claimed the directive blocked his nomination to contest the May 23 elections.
At the Tralee convention, it was decided that of the three FG candidates chosen, one would be a woman, as 30% of candidates have to be female under the directive.
However, Mr Hussey yesterday said he would not be surprised if a fourth candidate was added, or if a candidate was “parachuted’’ in.
“You don’t have to be a member of Fine Gael any more to be a candidate,’’ he said.
He also stated it was FG that had left him, and not the other way around, and said he had not decided yet whether he will stand in the elections as an independent candidate.
When the controversy first flared after the convention, in November, Mr Hussey, described the FG gender quota as “ridiculous”, arguing it could lead to many situations where “a fantastic candidate could be overlooked for someone who doesn’t know anything at all about politics”.
He said he was in favour of increasing female representation in politics but “they have families and if they want to be politicians they’ll have to pay exorbitant money into creches — it’s all wrong”.
“I can’t see why you have to put in a gender balance,” Mr Hussey said.
“If women want to join political parties, they will join political parties. I fail to see the logic of it. It’s pure tokenism and even some of the women I have spoken to agree that it’s ridiculous.”
Mr Hussey withdrew his name in protest and three candidates selected were councillors Jim Finucane, Pat McCarthy and Grace O’Donnell.
Mr Hussey said it would have been “degrading” to have to go through the process of putting himself forward, when it was already predetermined that a woman would have to be selected.
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