Election 2020 is the first time there is at least one woman running in every constituency.

With the General Election called for the 8th of February, Women For Election is urging all parties to aim for at least a 40% gender balance amongst their candidates.

Currently the legislation requires that each party have at least 30% women running in general elections, or they will lose half their state funding.

This will increase to 40% in the following election, but Women for Election are asking all parties to be ambitious now.

Ciairín de Buis, CEO of Women for Election said: “The 30% requirement is the bare minimum, we’re calling on the parties to be much more ambitious and to aim for a more balanced ticket.

“We would like to see the parties running at least 40% women. It may be stating the obvious – but if we want to see more women elected, we need to see more women running for election.”

Less than ¼ of our elected politicians in Ireland are women.

Ciairín de Buis, CEO of Women for Election, continued: “This General Election is historic in that for the first time (as far as we know), there is at least one woman running in every constituency. We saw in the local elections in May that when women ran, they were just as likely to get elected.

“Now we have the chance to see more women elected to the Dáil, the parties need to make sure there are more women on the ticket and so the electorate then have the chance to make that happen.”