KCLR NewsNews & Sport

More women needed to represent people of Carlow and Kilkenny

Ireland is bad for female representation in politics but Carlow needs particular work.

That’s according to the CEO of Women for Election Catriona Gleeson who says first we have to make the job more ‘family-friendly’.

There are only two women elected to Carlow County Council with Andrea Dalton and Adrienne Wallace.

                    FF Councillor Andrea Dalton
Adrienne Wallace
PBP/SOLIDARITY Councillor Adrienne Wallace

Four women sit on Kilkenny County Council- they are Cathaoirleach Fidelis Doherty, Mary Hilda Cavanagh, Deirdre Cullen and Maria Dollard.

FG Councillor Fidelis Doherty

 

Mary Hilda Cavanagh
FG Councillor Mary Hilda Cavanagh
FF Councillor Deirdre Cullen

 

Green party Councillor for Kilkenny Maria Dollard

It means there are only six female councillors compared to 36 men in the two counties.

Catriona been telling KCLR we need more women elected but says there’s been virtually no progress in the last century:

“Ireland is lagging way behind the rest of the world. We’re sitting in the bottom 100 in the world in terms of the number of women in politics. We’ve only actually got 31 more women in the Dáil today than we did 100 years ago”.