Councillor Hopkins calls for gender balance on influential Fingal committee

Gary Ibbotson 01 Feb 2021

Social Democrats councillor Joan Hopkins is calling for gender balance on Fingal County Council’s Corporate Policy Group (CPG).

The CPG is consisted of the mayor, deputy mayor and the chairs of the council’s six special policy committees.

The CPG’s duties include preparing the annual council budget as well as its five-year corporate plane and recommending policy amendments to the council.

Hopkins has tabled a motion for next week’s county council meeting to address the imbalance.

“Currently, all eight of these paid positions are held by male councillors, meaning the female councillors of Fingal have zero representation on this most influential group,” Hopkins said.

“Without adequate representation in Government, be it at national or local authority level, the realisation of women’s rights is severely limited.

“The increased presence of women in Government has a significant impact on policy agenda.

“Women make up 51% of the population and have a unique set of experiences and perspectives on issues.

“They must be sufficiently represented in decision-making to reflect a true democracy.

“The Local Government Act 2001 states that ‘a local authority shall seek to promote the objective of an appropriate gender balance in the making of appointments by it to bodies’.

“Fingal County Council have advised that ‘it is a matter for the members to have regard to this legislation when nominating councillors to the various committees and bodies of the Council’.”

Hopkins says that Fingal County Council is not doing enough to address the gender imbalance on the committee.

“The fact that the members of Fingal County Council – the majority of whom are male – ‘considered’ gender balance, as required by the law, and still ended up not nominating one single women to this influential group speaks volumes.

“It suggests to me that the current legislation which seeks only to ‘promote’ gender balance does not work.

“Not only do these positions afford greater influence on the council, they also contribute to the gender pay gap as the positions come with significant additional payment.”

Hopkins says that the lack of opportunities for woman on the committee hinders their chance of taking up a seat in the Dail, where only 22 percent of TDs are female.

“There are lots of very committed male councillors in Fingal but there are also many talented female councillors who deserve to have a seat at the table.

“All the people of Fingal deserve to see themselves reflected in the decision-making process.

“Countries with the most female policymakers and lawmakers have made the most progress on issues such as equality, social inclusion, labour force participation and paid leave – that’s because women are more likely to raise these issues.

“Increased participation by women has been proven to change overall party positions in areas associated with family, equality and social inclusion and results in women’s interests becoming more centrally situated on the political agenda.

“The absence of women making decisions on Fingal County Council may well be a factor in a lack of infrastructure in our constituencies, from public toilets, playgrounds and safe parks to cycling infrastructure, schools and housing.”

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