Quota system:Fianna Fáil delegates have voted for the introduction of a quota system for women on key party structures.
In a vote swung by Minister for Finance Brian Cowen, delegates backed the move to ensure that 10 of the 20 delegates elected by the ardfheis to the ardchomhairle, the party's national executive, are women.
The party also endorsed a commitment that one-third of all election candidates are women by 2014. In the 2002 general election fewer than 10 per cent of candidates were female.
There was sustained applause for passionate arguments against the changes, which delegates said smacked of "tokenism". But in a rousing speech, Mr Cowen told delegates that a vote against the rule changes was a vote for the status quo.
The facts were that the party was not representative and while a quota was "not ideal", it was not intended to be permanent or irrevocable, he said.
However "the presentation of our party to the wider public is very important", to show that Fianna Fáil "is a tolerant, republican, pluralist organisation". The party's agenda "must reflect that wider sense of social change," he said to a standing ovation.
Delegate Marian Keane opposed the quota system and said the under-representation of women needed to be addressed "at recruitment level". She added to enthusiastic applause that "women need to be put forward on our merit, not gender".
However, Kathleen Mara said the reality was that women were blocked at so many stages.
Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan, who chaired the debate, supported the changes. She was "not a token women" and said that women who were not as successful as she had been should be given an opportunity.
The target of one third of election candidates to be women by 2014, will be reviewed in 2009.
