Tipperary County Council has more female councillors than some bordering counties – but can still do better.
That’s the message from Michelle Maher who is the Programme Manager for See Her Elected – an organisations which supports women in rural Ireland to become involved in local Government.
Only 9 out of the 40 councillors in Tipperary are women which is 23%, compared to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown where 45% are.
In neighbouring counties such as Waterford – they 19%, Kilkenny has 17% and Offaly County Council only has one woman coming to 5%.
SHE will hold an event in Thurles tomorrow in collaboration with the Tipp County Council to encourage women to become more involved in local politics.
Michelle says that this is a step in the right direction.
“Comparatively speaking Tipperary is good but it is still only 1 in 4 of the councillors that is a woman and really Tipp county council has to be praised for leading out in the area on this because they are recognising that greater diversity in who represents us in Tipperary matters and they’re doing something about it and the something they are doing about it is supporting the Tipperary Women’s Caucus which is chaired by Councillor Peggy Ryan.”
She told Tipp FM that political parties can also play a part through co-option panels and enlisting SHE’s support.
“Perhaps that is a way for political parties to encourage more women to come in and have them on there on that panel of people to be considered for co-options. But what that means is you are doing the job of a councillor without ever have gone through an election you are missing out on that valuable expertise. Quite a number after the General Election in February 2020 there were a number of co-opted councillors who subsequently came along to our introduction to local government to learn about the nuts and bolts of council business.”
