THERE WAS a conservative culture, not only on the part of men but also women, in seeking a gender balance in political representation, Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan told the Dáil.

“There is a balance to be struck between increasing the participation rate of women in politics, and people of either gender wishing to be in politics on merit,” he added.

Mr Hogan said there was nothing to stop a person from standing as a candidate in an election for any political party or parties opting for a 50-50 ratio, if they wished.

The Minister added that his proposal to reduce State funding for political parties, if they failed to have 30 per cent of female candidates for the next general election, was “setting a floor” in legislation.

The Minister was responding to Stephen Donnelly (Ind) who said the same principle should apply to the next local elections, with a target of 40 per cent which would then also be adopted for general elections.

Mr Hogan said he had great sympathy with the tone of Mr Donnelly’s remarks.

“I consider this to be a staging post towards achieving his objective,” he added.

Mr Donnelly said moving from 30 per cent to 40 per cent, which was the Council of Europe’s recommended percentage and ultimately the figure the Minister wanted to reach, would require Fine Gael and Labour finding an additional 24 and 12 female candidates respectively.

“In the context of there being 2.25 million women in Ireland, it should not be beyond the abilities of the parties,” he added.

Mr Hogan said the Coalition was the first government to bring forward a meaningful proposal to increase the participation rate of women and to give them the opportunity to be candidates in a general election.

He was linking it to general elections, in the first instance, and asking political parties to have due regard to it in the local elections.