40% of Government committees do not include any female representation

Fine Gael TD Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said the figures were 'disappointing but not surprising'. File picture: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Four-out-of-10 of the Government's Cabinet committees do not include any women.

Following its formation, the Government established 10 Cabinet committees on Covid-19, economic recovery, Brexit and the North, the environment, housing, health, social affairs, education, Europe, and Government co-ordination.

There are no women on the Cabinet Covid-19 Committee, the Cabinet Health Committee, the Committee on Europe or Government Coordination.

When the committees were established, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said each would work to advance the Government's priorities in the programme for government, particularly where cross-Government collaboration is critical.

Cabinet committees are supported by a corresponding Senior Officials Group, generally chaired by an assistant secretary in the Department of the Taoiseach and with membership drawn from the relevant Government departments.

The fact that 40% of the committees have no women present for any of their meetings was revealed in a Parliamentary Question to Social Democrat TD Cian O’Callaghan. 

He said: 

Having all-male Cabinet committees is akin to something that we might expect from1950s' Ireland.

"The decision to completely exclude women from 40% of the cabinet committees is utterly unacceptable."

Fine Gael TD Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said the figures were "disappointing but not surprising".

"We have had a history of underrepresentation by women in politics and in the senior civil service," she said.

"We have to keep asking why that is so, and whether that is acceptable for our society, which is obviously half female, because these are key groups making decisions and implementing them for the whole of society.

There is nothing remote or disconnected about their work, but there is clearly a disconnect if so many of them do not have a single woman on them at all."

She questioned why there are so few women in decision-making rooms and asked who can blame aspirational female politicians for turning off politics when they see the constant flow of vindictive abuse online.

A big thank you to the Oireachtas Women’s Caucus for discussing my PMB on remote voting at the AGM this afternoon @NWCI @Fiona_Kildare @OrlaNWCI https://t.co/qiutYIm7HI

— Jennifer Carroll MacNeill TD (@CarrollJennifer) February 9, 2021

Meanwhile, the Irish Women’s Parliamentary Caucus has debated and supported Jennifer Carroll MacNeill’s Remote Parliamentary Voting Private Members’ Bill.

The cross-party forum discussed the Bill, which seeks to amend the Constitution to allow for remote voting in specific situations, such as illness or Covid safety regulations and including the provision of maternity leave, labelled "one of the first steps towards flexible maternity or paternity provision for TDs and senators".

The Department of the Taoiseach was repeatedly contacted for comment.