Women candidate quota legislation could be forced on parties

Political parties could be forced by law to have a minimum number of women candidates in elections if the threat of having their state funding cut does not work, warned Minister Pat Rabbitte.

So far only Sinn Féin and the anti-austerity parties have 30% women candidates for the coming local election, according to the Women For Election group tracking the numbers.

Mr Rabbitte said that perhaps the quota system could also be applied to local elections, but they would wait to see how the numbers stacked up for the May vote.